Rating of
3/4
"District B13" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 02/16/12
A crime riddled district of Paris is walled up and abandoned by the authorities, but when a neutron bomb is stolen by its crime boss, a lone cop is sent in to defuse it. Escape From New York meets Ong Bak in this frenetic French action flick that's very much in the tradition of Luc Besson. The whole "near future" premise is really just an excuse to make you swallow the greater implausibilites in the plot, as there's little here to mark it out as sci-fi. It's really just a series of high octane shoot outs and bone crunching fight sequences as a buddy duo join forces to reach their respective objectives; the bomb and the rescue of a resident's sister. Thankfully there's no corny love interest and the buddy partnership works quite well because of the lack of idiotic one liners and macho bullshit you'd get in a Hollywood equivalent. It's a total no-brainer and the plot gets thinner and thinner as it goes (the best sequences are all at the beginning, before they set out on their mission) but the boys will enjoy the male bonding and non stop action and the girls will enjoy the sight of a constantly shirtless David Belle. Dumb but fun.
