Banlieue 13, aka District B13

District B13 reminded me of an earlier era in American popcorn films, when they were immersed in the popular issues of their time. Night of the Living Dead, Dirty Harry, or even When a Stranger Calls, while by no means subtle political films, all tweak the wider emotional concerns of the society they were created to entertain. Now, the American films are all soulless copies of those earlier films, cashing in on the name without understanding anything about why these films captured anyone's attention. There are certain exceptions, Drew Barrymore seems to have known what she was doing when she promoted making the first Charlie's Angels film. But usually it's something like "Let's remake When a Stranger Calls, only instead of using a familiar suburban setting to play on everyday fears, let's put it in some billionaire's remote mountain aerie that will look cooler on-screen!"

Anyways, District B13 uses the rising tension of the banlieues as inspiration for a story set in Paris' grim future. Most of the point of the movie is to create opportunities for really cool fight scenes, gun battles, and open running stunts, not to delve deep into the social issues, but it does help that it's about something. The banlieues of this film are walled off as France has finally just given up on a segment of society, leaving them to a feudal existence under the thumb of criminal slum lords.

The opening action sequences feature David Belle, credited with creating the sport of Parkour, in a series of open running stunts escaping from drug-running thugs who control the banlieue. Belle is pretty impressive, moving through an urban landscape efficiently without regard to niceties like stairs or doorways. This sets an energetic tone in the same way Belle's friend Sebastien Foucan made Casino Royale instantly memorable with his free running stunts. (Exactly how free running diverges from Parkour remains a mystery to me.) Belle and Cyril Raffaelli are definitely entertaining in their various escapes, and in the severe beatings they dish out along the way.

The actual political comment of the film is over the attitude of its two protagonists. Leito (Belle) has given up on any faith in the society outside the banlieues or their values, and instead relies on his own fists, trying to protect the people in his building by force. Damien (Raffaelli) is a cop who believes in a grand, uplifting French society, and that he is responsible to see that everyone follows the law that makes that possible. The two of them must find a neutron bomb that has slipped into Banlieue 13 under mysterious circumstances. Leito cynically believes that this is no accident, and the bomb is intended to wipe out the undesirables of the Parisian underclass, while Damien believes such a thing is impossible, and just product of the hatred and paranoia of Leito's environment. Leito's chilling response, that 6 million were murdered for not having blond hair and blue eyes, so why think exterminating 2 million in Banlieue 13 is unimaginable, is the real sign that while this may be at heart a popcorn movie, it has wrapped its fluffy entertainment value around a kernel of something more serious . This film was also produced before last year's riots, making predictions that things were going to get a lot worse before the end.

I really enjoyed it, but I am a complete sucker for anything with Luc Besson's name on it. And to come full circle in this review, the only films associated with him I haven't enjoyed were the American attempts to remake his films, Taxi with Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah, and even worse, Point of No Return .