Banlieue 13: Ultimatum

After a successful mission against drug lords, the efficient Captain Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) is framed at home with three kilograms of heroine planted by the police in his kitchen and he is arrested. Meanwhile a group of teenagers film the action of dirty agents leaded by Roland (Pierre-Marie Mosconi) from the security agency executing policemen in their car and then leaving the car with the corpses in the 13th District to blame the gangs and begin a civil war. Behind these events, the corrupt chief of the security agency Walter Gassman (Daniel Duval) had received a huge amount as kickback from the constructor Harriburton that has interest to construct buildings in the poor area and uses the situation to force the President of France (Philippe Torreton) to authorize to nuke five towers in the district. The teenager with the film is hunted by the police but he delivers the memory card to Leito (David Belle); meanwhile Damien calls him from the precinct asking for help. The friends team-up with five dangerous bosses to gather evidences to prove to the president that Gassman has provoked the conflict in their district.

"Banlieue 13 – Ultimatum" is a great sequel of the awesome 2004 "Banlieue 13". The story has non-stop action scenes very well choreographed and an excellent screenplay; the performances of Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle with the Parkour are again very impressive. Unfortunately I found the conclusion disappointing and pointless and it seems to contradict the objective of the dwellers of the 13th District that meet the president to avoid him from blowing up their homes. How could they be so naive to believe in the word of a politician that was under pressure? Therefore in the end the winner is Harriburton! My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "B13 U – 13o Distrito – Ultimato" ("B13 U – 13th District – Ultimatum")

I was really hoping for something amazing after the first one, but this was just OK. David Belle is the founder of French parkour and unlike to the first one, he really didn't show much skill in this one. He did have one crazy jump though. Cyril Raffaelli also didn't show off his karate and wushu skills like the first. He did have a couple cool scenes though. Now the story is a little continued from the first, but very weak compared to the first. But they did add a lot of colorful characters in this one that I enjoyed. They all had their personal fighting style or action. The music in this film was pretty nice and worked well with the action. Now back to the story of the film. It is the same basic background like the first, but with a different bad guy. I guess you could say is it is pretty uneventful. All you really wait for is Belle or Raffaelli to do something cool. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy parts of the film, just not all of it.

This exciting flick contains nail-biting action , thrills , spectacular scenes and plot twists . Thrilling and violent movie with a phenomenal starring pair and in which Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle cast all the Stuntmen themselves . Set in the rundown ghettos of Paris in 2010, an undercover cop and an ex-thug try to infiltrate into a police precinct and Palace of President in order to save their barrios when some enemies are bent on destroying the five tower blocks at the heart of District 13 with tactical precision bombing . Once upon again Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) and Leito (David Belle , the originator of Le Parkour) are reunited upon to avoid a bombing on destroying the blocks at the heart of District 13 and save the city . They have to confront a nasty Police Chief from the Department of Internal State Security (DISS), and even Le Président De la République (Philippe Torreton) . With acrobatic skillfulness and adrenaline pumping belief in their own abilities, they throw themselves out from incredible heights, and jump from roof to roof ; locked doors and 'No Trespassing' signs become irresistible challenges . They face off their enemies in order to avoid the total destruction their district as Damien and Leïto convince the five gang lords to band together to prevent it when the president authorizing the strike .

¨13th District : ultimatum ¨ is an amazing film that packs suspense , thrills, noisy action , shootouts and violent fights . The main couple is unabashed in its dedication to fanboy stunt work . From the beginning to the final the noisy action and fast movement is unstopped , including breathtaking scenes in which bounds and leaps through apartments blocks and at moments give the impression that they are flying . Cyril Raffaelli as a hard-rock , two-fisted agent is top-notch . This is a frantic rehash of ¨Escape from NY¨ , rightly realized in French style . The highlights of the movie are The Parkour , also known in USA as Free Running whose origin was in ¨Yamasaki¨ film directed by Ariel Zeitoun , Julien Seri and also produced by Luc Besson with his production company called ¨EuropaCorps¨ . Duo protagonist more than make up for in an skill to soar across a rolling medley highrise flats blocks . The way in which the actors prove this abilities , is in fact an activity called Parkour and was invented by David Belle himself , influenced by his father Raymond Belle . Cyril Raffaelli also choreographed all the fight sequences ; however David Belle didn't practice all his Parkour stunts , most of the ones that you see in the film were of him performing the stunt for the first time .Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle had three months to prepare all their Parkour stunts for the film . There weren't any special effects , wire-work, computer graphics... used in 90% of the Parkour scenes .The film was at the subject of a controversy when writer/producer Luc Besson accused cinema chain UGC in the French media of boycotting the film by not showing it in their Parisian suburbs cinemas, and thus trying to stop its intended audience from seeing it. UGC replied that they felt their distribution for the film was up to par and that in any case it wasn't Besson's business to decide which cinemas should or should not carry the film. Good and atmospheric cinematography using Steadicam and zooms with numerous locations from Paris slums ; however set in Paris, some of the film was shot in Serbia. The musician Da Octopuss creates a stirring, moving soundtrack fitting to frantic action . Lavishly produced by the successful French producer and director Luc Besson . The flick was stunningly realized by Patrick Alessandrin though Alexandre Aja and Pierre Morel (who took a break from filming ¨From Paris with love¨ to come visit the set in Paris) were originally hired to direct the movie the first . Filmmaker Alessandrin gives the action a dance-like quality and the whole movie lasted 14 weeks for production , idea, script, casting, filming, etc . Rating: Better than average, well worth seeing , this is a highly agreeable follow-up . The picture will appeal to explosive action fans

I was a bit disappointed with B13 Ultimatum, and I'm judging it against the first installment of B 13. I expected it to be on par if not better than the original but I found it slower, flatter and far less dynamic. Somewhat similar to Matrix and Matrix Reloaded, the 1st being fresh and dynamic and the 2nd being more polished and elaborate, though I thought the latter was still very good. B13 Ultimatum is plagued by some bad scripting and cartoonish and ridiculous characters - like the face-tattooed Tao - and lost credibility as the film progresses, becoming a mediocre Hollywood action flick. One detail that I found amusing and ridiculous was the amount of gun-less cops that were mowed over by the two protagonists, yet when they did use guns, the shower of bullets seemed useless against the seemingly bullet-proof little Citroen or Renault get-away car.. Hollywood, eat your heart out.

Three years after the events of the previous 'District 13' film things have not improved in the District despite promises made at the time. Now a corrupt minister is planning to expel the inhabitants and demolish the buildings so profitable redevelopment can take place. To this end his has a shadowy agency raise tensions and turn public opinions against the inhabitants of the district. They have honest cop Captain Damien Tomaso arrested on a trumped-up charge and murder two other officers before making it look as if they were killed in the District. Unbeknownst to them the killing was filmed; when they realise this the go after the witness but he has passed the recording to Leito. Damien manages to call Leito but before he can do anything he must get away from the security forces. Once reunited Damien and Leito set about exposing the truth and saving the community; to do this they will have to unite the various groups living in the district.

It must be said the story isn't that deep and the villains couldn't be more obviously bad... that doesn't matter though. The story is just an excuse to give great scenes of parkour and martial arts action... and it really delivers these well. David Belle is amazing in the parkour scenes and Cyril Raffaelli is great in his martial arts scenes; these combine to give the film a feel similar to Hong Kong action films without it feeling as though the makers were copying that formula. The main cast is solid in the 'acting' as well as action scenes. The ending is a little disappointing; especially when we only hear distant explosions rather than seeing them... at least they weren't rendered in poor CGI. Overall this might not be a great film but it is a lot of fun and definitely delivers if you want action and a degree of humour.

These comments are based on watching the film in French with English subtitles.