Written by Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri (who plays the villain Taha in the movie) and directed by Pierre Morel, DISTRICT 13 or B:13 as the French title goes, has action written all over it.  Besson directed FIFTH ELEMENT, NIKITA and SUBWAY while director Morel did camerawork for TAXI 2 and TRANSPORTER 2.  The two main stars Cyril Raffaelli (cop Damien) and David Belle (rogue Leito) are action athletes indulging in extreme sports. 

B:13 refers to a ghetto in Paris.  Year 2010.  With all the crime in the city, all Paris is divided into banlieues (districts) and protected by walls and armed men.  Gangs reign supreme within them.  The apparently simple plot concerns Leito (Belle) entering B:13 to stop its chief, Taha from selling drugs around his building.  Trouble is that things take a wild turn with him being imprisoned by the cops and his sister, Lola (Dany Verissimo) made a coke addict by Taha.  Flash forward six month later.  Cop (Raffaelli) is given the undaunted task of dismantling a bomb in B:13, so the cops free Leito (as Leito knows B:13 inside out) for help.  And so the story goes.

Though it might seem that the plot does not matter, it actually does.  That is where the beauty lies in B:13.  Action and story go hand in hand with at least half a dozen plot twists or surprises at the end.  Morel’s action lever lets up.  The momentum is constant from start to finish with some real suspenseful (the bomb dismantling) moments thrown in. 

Actor Belle is the co-inventor of a sport called Parkour, which consists of moving freely in a natural area including climbing on buildings and overcoming any architectural obstacles in the way.  The extensive impressive beginning sequence with Leito escaping his pursuers by scaling walls, jumping across rooftops and up and down staircases through window gaps and doors and bedrooms and again at the film’s climax where he climbs several floors sans stairs are grand exhibitions of Parkour.

B:13 is the best actioneer (dollar for dollar in comparison to films like M-I:3 and X MEN 3) to hit North American screens this year – though it took 2 years in the process.  It has the feel of the old French serial spy films like FANTOMAS but updated to the present.  As one character says in B:13, this is not FANTOMAS but James Bond!  Fast, furious, exciting, suspenseful and entertaining, it takes the French to show Hollywood how action flicks should be done!