Banlieue 13
English Title: District 13
One word review: Stunted
Multi-word review:
Luc Besson takes the sport of free running and decides to make a movie that highlights it. He cast a free runner and a stunt man in the two lead roles. I expected (and wanted) crazy non-stop action. The movie opens strong, but then gets bogged down with heavy handed plot and discussions of justice and democracy. I don't want characters to point out the inhumanity of the Holocast in the middle of a fight scene.
Where Banlieue 13 falls short is sacrificing action for an attempt at a deeper social meaning. This is a movie that attempts to deliver a serious social message about poverty in France, and the government's attitude. However it does so in such a ridiculously heavy handed manner that it completely ruins the effect. As well, what should have been the films one saving grace, the action, was seemingly cut short to allow more scenes of philosophical debate.
I was expecting more free running. The first scene with free running is cool. However the only other scene featuring free running looks almost identical to the first. Footage could easily have been swapped from one to the other without anyone noticing. Part of free running is exploring the terrain and finding cool ways to navigate through it. Why not provide scenes in more distinct locales?
Sometimes it seems as though non-Hollywood film makers think they need to make "important" films. Even if they are just making silly action movies. A good movie with a small subtle message can be far more powerful than a painfully heavy handed film with at poorly delivered message. Lets examine a no-bones-about it action movie like Hard Boiled. This is a movie that has more bullets and bodies than all the Dirty Harry movies combined. The final scene is 20 or 30 minutes of gun play in a hospital with good guys and villains jumping over and around the patients. Yet this movie manages to deliver reasonably complex ideas about honour, duty and the moral difficulties of police work. Most of the time, these ideas are covered without requiring the characters to simply state the issues directly.
If Banlieue 13 had focused more on the action and let the events expose the issues it would have been a far more enjoyable film, which probably would have made it a more effective film as well.