Pi in the Sky

Banlieu 13

Posted on August 15th, 2007 at 9:18pm by Pi.
Categories: Cinema.

Banlieu 13
Action. France, 2004
Director: Pierre Morel
Writers: Luc Besson, Bibi Naceri
Cast: Cyril Rafaelli, David Belle, Dany Verissimo

An action movie with great and realistic action scenes and fights, without stunts or wires.

The story is set in a very near future, year 2010, when the conflictive districts of outer Paris have been separated by a huge wall to keep the crime away. This place, called District 13, has been left to its own luck, and violence and crime lords have the control there. A local guy tries to do the right thing but he’s betrayed by police itself. A few month later, one of the hardest policemen is sent to District 13 to recover a bomb from the local crime lord, and needs the help of the local guy.

Banlieu 13 might been more known to people for a video which has been spread in YouTube and other video hosting networks, where David Belle makes an incredible and amazing escape from the bad boys. You can see it’s the actor the one doing the jumps, the climbing, and beating the crap out of the bad boys. After the local guy Leito has finished his appareance, Damien the policemen makes his debut with another breathtaking fighting scene. The beginning of the movie is quite frantic and contains absolutely great physical action, without the need of special effects, wires or anything. Pure action, physical abilities of the actors, that’s the main point of this movie.

The rest of the movie also contains astonishing scenes, where you see both guys jumping and fighting as if they could fly. Certainly they haven’t been chosen for the movie due to their acting performances, although they do it quite decently. Special mention to Dany Verissimo, in a small but interesting role, showing her character. Dany was more known for her porn and soft-core movies, but she acts pretty well in her Lola character.

The science-fiction elements are minimal, and the plot is quite simple and straight-forward. While there are dramatic and thriller elements, they’re left minimized to focus on the action. That’s the only flaw I see in the movie, that the movie itself is too simple. If some sensible or interesting stuff was left in the argument, in the same way as Danny The Dog (for example), it wouldn’t have diminished the action, and they would have made the movie much better.

Still, Banlieu 13 is a very entertaining movie, very well done, and worth watching at least once. Very sad that it hasn’t seen a better distribution.

My score: 6/10. Great entertainment factor.

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