Par for the kour

Yesterday holyoutlaw and I saw the French action film District B13 (French title: Banlieue 13) at the Uptown. It features a lot of running around and soaring leaps off of ledges and climbing the sides of buildings and gangster shootouts and car chases and shirtless guys sweating through their tattoos.

"I love these intellectual French films," Luke remarked afterward.

It takes place in 2010, when the French government has walled off the Mexicans undesirables outside Paris (shades of the recent riots). But wait, there's a neutron bomb that's going to blow up in there in less than 24 hours! A ragtag team of one resentful resident of District B13, his sexy, spunky sister, and one honest cop must race against the clock and battle an army of gangster scum and ambiguous bureaucrats to save the day.

The action sequences are great, and the script has a winning sense of humor, treating all its standard tropes with affectionate exaggeration. The finale runs out of steam somewhat in the face of its inevitability, but by then we'd been entertained enough not to care. It's a thrillride peppered with wisecracks, and it does the trick. Skip M:Iiii (or "meh," as Stephen Colbert apparently pronounces it) and celebrate French liberty instead. Bien fait!