Acrobatic action fun from France

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, June 1, 2006

Showing in last year’s Seattle International Film Festival, “District B13” (or as it was then known by its original French title, “Banlieue 13”) arrived like a swaggering, testosterone-fueled guest at a genteel arthouse party.

Boy, was it welcome.

Nothing against the more sensitive entries at SIFF, but “District B13” is one of those necessary doses of pure action and crazy excitement. The movie now opens for its regular U.S. run.

We are in Paris, year 2010. District 13 has become such a cesspool of crime that the French government has walled it off from the rest of the city. One criminal-rebel-hero named Leito (David Belle), a native of District 13, has been unfairly arrested by the police and jailed.

But he’s about to go back to the old stomping grounds. Seems an arch-criminal has stolen a neutron bomb and has it on one of those digital timers that always turn up in movies like this. A tough undercover cop named Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) must team up with Leito to find the bomb, quell the bad guys and dismantle the device. In 24 hours.

That’s the plot. Don’t worry about it. It is absurd, and the movie knows it.

The story is an excuse to take the somewhat tarnished Damien and the not entirely disreputable Leito and pair ‘em up. That’s the classic stuff of buddy-action movies.

Then we get to watch them clean house through a series of mind-blowing stunt scenes. We should mention here that David Belle is a practioner of something called Parkour, a style of executing stunts in an urban environment that combines athletics with aesthetics.

I’m not entirely clear on what’s involved with Parkour, but if the opening sequence of this movie is indication, it’s pretty cool. Belle unleashes a series of acrobatic leaps and falls (down buildings, across rooftops) that should have Jackie Chan green with envy. It’s a rocking start to this movie, which then whips along in breathless fashion for a brief 82 minutes.

“District B13” is the directing debut of Pierre Morel, a cinematographer on some of action godfather Luc Besson’s previous films (“The Transporter,” “Unleashed”). Besson co-wrote and produced this one, and it has his stamp all the way: simple but ingenious storytelling, broad strokes, high-spirited action. It will not make any 10 best lists, but it gets the blood pumping.

A scene from “District B13.”