District 13: Ultimatum (2009)

For those of us who unfortunately have not seen the original BANLIEUE 13 - aka DISTRICT 13 - (made in 2004 with the same crew except for the director - Pierre Morel), some of the background information that usually follows in a sequel is missing and according to many, the sequel here BANLIEUE 13:ULTIMATUM - aka DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM is not as strong a film. And perhaps that allows the viewer to appreciate fine French film making without the comparison!

Luc Besson (of the Trasnporter series et al) wrote this script (or rather, this plan of choreography, as there is not a lot of spoken dialogue in this fast-paced thriller) and Patrick Allessandrin directs a story of a region of Paris (District 13) that is cordoned off the rest of Paris by a group of five warlords who manage to control the drug ridden violent region. Basically the tale is that of two men - Captain Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) and undercover cop of the 'good' police and Leïto (David Belle), an ex-thug who in the previous film infiltrated a gang in order to defuse a neutron bomb. That was supposedly in 2010. The film opens some years later when District 13 is now in control of power over the government and the 'bad police' are attempting to destroy the area and rebuild according to their greedy plans. The action is the story and the action is immensely exciting! David Belle invented a discipline known as Parkour, which consists of moving quickly and efficiently in any environment, using only the abilities of the human body, and though his acting credits are minimal, he is stupefying in his live action role. Belle and Raffaelli are the reasons to watch this thriller as their screen chemistry is magnetic. Other standout performances in the film include the much tattooed Elodie Yung as Tao (the principal gang queen), Philippe Torreton as the much oppressed President, and the evil appearing Daniel Duval as the nemesis who turns the keys of the plot.

The cinematography is superb, the musical score is French rap music that while it suits the mood of the film becomes irritating in its repetitiveness. In all this is an escape film that is high on excitement is not very high on intelligent dialogue. But put Bell and Raffaelli together and the combustion is authentically credible.

Grady Harp

Fmovies: The plot of District B13 Ultimatum is a lot sillier than the plot of the original movie, and our heroes are a bit older and as a result they move a bit slower, but this is nevertheless an entertaining sequel that you won't want to miss if you enjoyed the first one. Unfortunately, I did see the dubbed version rather than subtitled, and I'm sure that took away quite a bit of the quality. Even so, there were enough really good stunts to keep me watching for an hour and a half, including a great bit where a car drives through a high rise building. The free running is not as seamless as the original and there's some choppy editing to create the illusion of stunts rather than actually pulling them off, but this certainly isn't as bad of a sequel to a cult action flick as Ong Bak 3 was. I discovered D13-U and saw it on a rainy afternoon when there was nothing else to do and I ended up having a really good time.

I guess you have to call this film a sequel; I can't imagine it making a grain of sense to anyone who hasn't seen the 2004 original. It's a sad effort; not just because it doesn't match its predecessor. Where B13 was bright and glossy despite the funk, the sequel looks dingy; where B13's cast was uniformly vivid and memorable (right down to the guy with a mouth full of panties) the sequel gives us anonymous bodies in motion, then halfway through deploys a mob of half-imagined, ethnic-stereotyped "good guys" who are given nothing much to do, dramatically or physically. Without Bibi Naseri (Tata), Tony D'Amario (K-2), and their gang, there's not one memorable face, let alone memorable character. Where in B13 David Belle looked fresh and omni-competent, you can see that five years has taken its toll on his looks and his skills. He's now old enough to play a complex character with a face to match, but all he's asked to do is play sidekick to co-star Cyril Raffaelli, who barely gets enough screen time to make an impact. The film runs just a quarter-hour longer than B13 (101 minutes) but seems twice as long and half as much fun. Only thing notable about it: the WORST English subtitles (clearly translated from Chinese) since the heyday of the Shaw Brothers.

The DVD of B13-Ultimatum is boxed with the original. If you already have that, don't buy this one, just rent it.

District 13: Ultimatum fmovies. The incredibly acrobatic pairing of Parkour pioneer, David Belle and martial arts maestro Cyril Raffaelli team up once again for this sequel to the simply breathtaking District 13. It seems that the happy ending of the original film didn't come to fruition and the run down district of the films title is as crime ridden and grotty as ever. Once again, a shady government faction has designs to blow up the place (there's a bit more to it than that actually but that's basically it in a nutshell!) and it's up to our boys to re-team in an effort to put a stop to their nefarious plans.

Well, it has to be said that I concur with the general tide of opinion as regards this one; It's certainly a great watch in its own right yet pales against its predecessor not least of all due to the incredible Parkour displays which so elevated the original being extremely toned down here.......Why?!?! Nonetheless, as if to balance this, Raffaelli at least gets to show off far more of his incredible fighting skills in some truly amazing sequences, the like which are so seldom seen outside of Hong Kong cinema. It would have been really nice to see a few more appearances from members of the original cast (the hulking K2 and Leito's incredibly sexy sister would have been most welcome!) but it was not to be sadly. Still, as said previously the film stands well in its own right.....just try to overlook the somewhat sappy ending though.

B13 Ultimatum is simply a re-hash of the original B13, the latter merely serving as a stage for the incredible acrobatic stunts and action sequences displayed in the film. But, the sequel is a bit of a let down as the stunts seem repetitive after the first flick. The novelty has evaporated. Neither film has much of a plot, and in the sequel the story is similar to the first installment. In a near-future Paris, there is little distinction to be made between police and criminals, particularly in District 13. No one in their right mind would want to live in this place, and if you did you'd need advanced skills in martial arts and some high caliber weapons to survive from one day to the next. In both films crooked police elements are out to destroy criminal gangs in the city to increase their control, and are willing to sacrifice innocent people to accomplish these ends. In this improbable situation vicious thugs become heroes, of sorts, by thwarting police efforts. If you've seen the first movie, you've seen enough.

I was really hoping for something amazing after the first one, but this was just OK. David Belle is the founder of French parkour and unlike to the first one, he really didn't show much skill in this one. He did have one crazy jump though. Cyril Raffaelli also didn't show off his karate and wushu skills like the first. He did have a couple cool scenes though. Now the story is a little continued from the first, but very weak compared to the first. But they did add a lot of colorful characters in this one that I enjoyed. They all had their personal fighting style or action. The music in this film was pretty nice and worked well with the action. Now back to the story of the film. It is the same basic background like the first, but with a different bad guy. I guess you could say is it is pretty uneventful. All you really wait for is Belle or Raffaelli to do something cool. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy parts of the film, just not all of it.