Banlieue 13
(or District 13 for the English speaking population)
So I made a stop into the International Film Festival at the Little for the last film on the French night. I would have liked to have seen about 3 of the 4 French movies actually, but work got in the way of that. But thank god I made it to this one.
First off, I'm not sure if the audience knew what they were seeing. You don't normally get that many well dressed middle aged couples going to see violent action films. But then again, maybe they did know... In either case the theatre was filled with a diverse crowd.
And the film? Fantastic. It's great to see that some people can still make great action movies. When you check out the bios of the main actors you find that they have almost no real acting experience, however they are quite accomplished stunt coordinators and stuntmen. That's always a good sign for an action movie. Throw in Luc Besson as one of the writers and you've got an extremely entertaining movie.
Are there holes? Sure, but name me any action film that doesn't? And the action itself more than makes up for that. I believe the actual term I heard used to describe the action was "painful acrobatics", and that's rather accurate.
The biggest surprise though? It seemed very well acted, and the story was unique (in a way). True my French is still a bit weak to really judge French acting, but it seemed good to me. Wasn't wooden and/or flat. And the story did hold together enough to not make you question everything happening. In fact I'd be willing to take that a step further and say that it was one of the better action movie storylines I've seen. I know, that doesn't say much, but it's still something.
RATING: Worth a Full Admission, Worth a Full Rental/Purchase, Worth a Trip to France? (Why not!)