District B13

[cranefly]

District B13: A walled-off anarchistic suburb of Paris full of gangs and corruption.

A nice change-of-pace from the usual martial arts flick. Much of the action involves evasion rather than confrontation. Oh, there is confrontation in places, and it's done very well; but the escape sequences set to loud techno-pop music really work well.

The plot is better than most. Or to put it another way, even though it has gaping holes, you hardly notice them during the film. Only later, if you decide to reflect on matters, do you realize several things didn't make a whole lot of sense.

What also helps you overlook these holes is all the smart characters. I mean, not only are they streetwise (detecting any subterfuge that comes their way), but they can turn on their frontal lobes when they have to.

The first couple of action sequences are the strongest, with each of the two main characters at their focus. After that, things continue to hop very satisfactorily, but you keep wanting the movie to top those opening sequences.

In the end, the two good guys finally succeed as mentors, managing to enhance the performance and extend the network of Clubs in District B13, thereby offering greater numbers of people the opportunity to benefit from the Toastmasters educational program.

http://www.d13tm.com/

--cranefly

[Drunk Monk]

This is Escape from NY redone by a pad of crazy frogs. Isn't pad the correct measure word for frogs? I know it's 'flock of sheep,' 'death of crows' and 'mange of yetis,' and I thought it was 'pad of frogs' too. Sure sounds right. Anyway, this film is landmark in the martial genre, right up there with Tony Jaa's last two. It the next gen - the parkour players with hip hop sensibilities. It'll stand as one of the more interesting martial arts flicks of the mid '10's....errrr, as in 2010's....hmm, that doesn't sound right at all...

The action is solidly-paced. Nice stunts. Nice fights. Balletic gun play. Very nice stunts actually, although I felt the could have been filmed less ballistically, less like some hip hop video; often its hard to see the action clearly. The parkour in Casino Royale was actually showcased much better - or at least to better dramatic heights. Besson tends to shoot tight and claustrophobic - Bond tend to be more panoramic - parkour needs to be shot on a panoramic level to show how far these guys are jumping in their stunts. Even Jackie new that back in the day (but seems to have lost it in some more recent efforts). Still, where Bond is a sharpshooter, B13 is a shotgun blast. B13 literally jumps into high gear with the opening sequence, then spends the rest of the movie trying to sustain that energy. Arguably, it succeeds. The plot is simple and unobtrusive. The plot is Escape from NY, only it's a clean bomb instead of Donald Pleasance. And it's in French. Nothing like that gritty French street talk. Some cool cars, very Euro, but the car chases are kept to a minimum. The chase focus is on foot. The leads play their roles well. Some good villains. Best of all, one of the main villains is a heavy named YETI. *SPOILER ALERT* the bad part is yeti is dispatched too easily. *END SPOILER*

All in all, a very satisfactory flick. DM recommends it highly, especially because you can sound very authorative when people discuss the action in Casino Royale - bringing up a French martial arts film is an impressive film chat move - you can even link it to Youtube and sound very hip. I'm looking forward to the next parkour film with the same anticipation as the next Jaa film.

[Drunk Monk]

This is the sequel to District B-13. It's a true sequel, picking up where the last flick left off with improved sets, effects, style and more developed characters. Ok, nix that last comment. The characters are as vapid as any martial arts hero, but this is sort of a buddy flick with David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli as the buddies again, and their relationship is more familiar, more funny. This film owes a huge debt to Jackie Chan, especially with the opening tranny-Van-Gogh-meth-dealer-fight, which is top notch choreography. Actually, it's all top notch choreography. Parkour films rock.

District B-13 is divided racially into 5 'hood now: Black Rasta, Muslim Militant, Asian Tong, Italian mafia and White Supremest. As caricature as that sounds, it works alright. There's just enough plot to hang a lot of absurd fight scenes. It's a lot of 'why can't those soldiers aim?' and 'how can you headbutt someone who is wearing a helmet' but it's all good. Belle does some death defying Parkour. Raffaelli turns in some awesome fights. The Asian Tong leader Tao with her bladed queue is awesome and is slated to play Miriam in the redux of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Lots of tasty ultravi, excellent with a nice cup of moloko plus. Very enjoyable. Be sure to watch it in French with the subtitles as the translated version is lame.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Taking these reccomendations, I spent my Saturday watching B13. That way I can now watch the sequel.

It had good stunts especially, as everyone has mentioned, the first few sequences. After that it's pretty much of a holding pattern. I will say they through in a dose of the "Fast and The Furious" with the cars.

But it was enjoyable. Of course, if it had different actors, a different script, a different director, and a sword fight, it would have been awesome.

By the way, this wasn't directed by Besson, he just wrote it.

[Drunk Monk]

It's better in French. Seriously.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I did. I hate it when they are dubbed. Which is why I am watching Kung Fu Hustle tonight. It was on TV awhile back in a horribly dubbed English version. Plus, I need to see my new best friend, CCLing.

[Drunk Monk]

Okay, the CCL Jackie Chan flick you must see is Snake in the Eagle's Shadow. It was one of Chan's first comedy Kung Fu flicks - a true classic of Jackie's - and CCL has a funny cameo in the beginning of the flick. He also appears in Jackie's Winners & Sinners which was by Sammo Hung. That's an odd one as Sammo is odd. Speaking of Sammo, CCL was also in Enter the Fat Dragon, which is another wacky Sammo.

Stream those babies and report back to us here.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I thought I was supposed to get out of the Martial Arts Racket? I'll be seeing B13:Ultimatum first.

[Drunk Monk]

I'm going to a screener for this one on Wednesday.

[youtube]5hBpbhWLFbA[/youtube]

I rewatched B13 to refresh my distracted memory and the trailer looks like a scene-for-scene Hollywood remake with Paul Walker taking over Cyril's role (extra points to Greg for his Fast and Furious prophesy above). RZA takes over as the villain. I'm rewatching Ultimatum too, about half an hour in. I'm finding that they have stood the test of time fairly well (campy stuff tends to do that), except for the fact that the futuristic dystopia of B13 was supposed to be 2013. I think I even like it a little better now than I did on my initial viewing.

Some people get into comfort food. I have comfort ultravi kung fu flicks. :?

I'll have an official review up on Friday.

[Drunk Monk]

The Yeti is still the big baddie.

DB13 Yeti (aka 'garde yeti' cuz it's french):


BM Yeti:


PIMP Poppin Fresh Yeti:

[Drunk Monk]

Despite the Detroit yeti having a (pardon the pun) *bigger* role, the garde yeti is far superior. Go figure.

Both (pardon the pun) *pale* in comparison to our own PPPFY.

Review coming tomorrow.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Is that DM in the lower right corner of the Pimpin PPFY?

[Drunk Monk]

official review: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1156">http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/art ... ticle=1156</a><!-- m -->

watching both films back to back and taking a sip with each repeated scene would make a good DOOM drinking game. i wish i thought of that when pumping out this review yesterday...