DISTRICT B13
Parkour became popular during the late 1990s and early 2000s in France by Raymond Belle and his son David Belle as well as David's childhood friend: Sebastien Foucan. It is a sport in which movement through a city is done in a very efficient manner, usually through jumping off rooftops, climbing, and running. While parkour had its start in France, the popularity of the sport spread all over the world like wildfire. All you have to is go to YouTube and search for parkour. You will find thousands of videos demonstrating this unique and spectacular phenomenon. It's gotten so popular that certain military organizations have begun utilizing some parkour in their training. Parkour has been featured in many movies in the past 15 years, and the two people truly responsible for that are David Belle and martial arts/stuntman Cyril Raffaelli. The first movie to truly revolve around the use of parkour is District B13, directed by Pierre Morel.
The French action film begins as Leito(David Belle)is under attack from goons trying to recover the cocaine that he's stolen from the local crime lord. He escapes by jumping out windows and running along rooftops so that the goons can't follow him. The crime lord kidnaps Leito's sister, Lola(Danny Verissimo) to force Leito to his compound. Both escape to the border of their walled in neighborhood, but are betrayed by the local police inspector. 6 months later, undercover narcotics agent, Damien Tomaso(Cyril Raffaelli) is about to make the biggest bust of his career, when the drug kingpin that he's escorting discovers that Damien is an undercover cop. All hell breaks loose and Damien eventually gets his man. He is informed by his superiors that a nuclear weapon has been stolen by the crime lord, Taha(Bibi Naceri)who also kidnapped Leito's sister...again. Damien's orders are to go in to District B13 with the help of a local, Leito and disarm the bomb.
The only real reason the story exists is to move the film along from one action set-piece to another. It does so in fairly expedient manner, so you're never bored from one second to the next. The opening action sequence featuring David Belle is exquisitely awesome. Now THAT is how you introduce somebody like Belle. When he's jumping off rooftops or through windows, it's David Belle that's doing that, not a stunt double, and there are no visual effects and no green screen. It's all done on location and it makes that sequence all the more exciting. Cyril Raffaelli's introduction is also spectacular, if not as acrobatic. The sequence inside a casino shows off Cyril's impressive martial arts abilities as well as some fantastic gun-play. The stunt-work in this scene is just brutal. Again, there's no CG or wire-work involved here, it's all done for real. While the rest of the film's action sequences don't necessarily match the quality of the introduction sequences, they are just as fun to watch. There's some car chases, but the film mostly involves parkour.
I'm not sure the film would've worked as well if David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli weren't involved. While I wouldn't consider these guys top-notch actors(Belle is more of an athlete), they do a decent job. But the reason why we watch a movie like District B13 isn't for their acting abilities, it's for how they move, and it's some of the most spectacular stuff I've seen in a movie. It's non-stop action from beginning to end with no real surprises other than to see David Belle jump from rooftop to rooftop. District B13 is one of the most unique action films I've seen in the past decade. This one comes highly recommended. 9/10. For those who don't know who David Belle is:
BRICK MANSIONS
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If the above paragraph looks familiar, it should be. It's nearly the exact same description that I gave District B13, albeit with some additions and subtractions. Other than that, it's a beat-for-beat re-make of District B13. I wouldn't say it was shot-for-shot, but it comes pretty damned close. Remakes like Brick Mansions bother me, because they don't really try anything new. I can deal with remakes as long as they try to bring something new to the table, but Brick Mansions just doesn't do that. David Belle plays the same character he played in the original film, just with a slightly different name. The story is EXACTLY the same, the same plot points are hit in the exact same order, and some of the action sequences are precisely the same, just not executed as well. There ARE some differences here, I'll give the movie that. Paul Walker's character actually has a personal stake with what happens in Brick Mansions, as he believes Tremaine murdered his father. RZA's character of Tremaine, while not really a good guy, isn't a complete scumbag, and RZA's performance is actually somewhat compelling for once. He seems to enjoy playing the bad guy.
The introduction of David Belle's character is pretty much the same in Brick Mansions, with Lino stealing drugs and escaping Tremaine's lackeys. It's still somewhat spectacular, but it utilizes some CG and green screen effects, which actually takes away from the thrill. Paul Walker's introduction as Damien is not even REMOTELY as good as Raffaelli's. Walker's performance is pretty serviceable if not ground-breaking. He looks like he's having a hell of a lot fun though. Some of the stunt-work in this version are still pretty good, as most of them are done for real. The car chases are pretty exciting. Tremaine's reaction to seeing his car get shot is actually pretty funny. He shoots the guy that shoots up his car and threatens to do the same to the next guy who does that. The other really new characters are Damien's grandfather who promises to give up smoking entirely if Damien gives up chasing Tremaine. The other is Tremaine's second-in-command: Rayzah(Ayisha Issa). That's pretty much it.
Brick Mansions, unfortunately, was Paul Walker's last fully completed movie before he was killed in tragic car accident last year, so I'm not reaming this film a new one like a lot of people have been doing. I think Paul Walker as an actor, while not necessarily the greatest, was fun to watch in his other movies. It's a shame that he never got to complete Fast and Furious 7. While that film is on track to be released next year, utilizing his brothers as body doubles, it's too bad that his last completed project was nearly a shot-for-shot remake of a superior movie. Brick Mansions isn't really a terrible action movie. On the contrary, it's still a lot of fun, but it really doesn't have the same impact that District B13 did. While Brick Mansions is decent time-killer, District B13 is the superior film in every way. It gets a 7/10.
RIP Paul Walker 1973-2013:
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