Who's In It: David Belle, Cyril Raffaelli, Tony D'Amario, Dany Verissimo, Francois Chattot
Who Directed It: Pierre Morel

When Can I Buy It: 5th September, 2006 (Region 1)

District B13 - Reviewed by: Paul Heath

• Available Subtitles: English, Spanish
  
• Available Audio Tracks: French (Dolby Digital 5.1 EX), English (Dolby Digital 5.1 EX)
  
• "The Making of District B13" featurette
  
• Extended Fight Sequence
  
• Outtakes
  

DISTRICT B13 makes it to DVD just week after it's cinema release. The film is quite simply one of the treats of 2006, and I had a great time with it.

Set in the near future, actually 2010, in a neighborhood of Paris, the film follows Leïto, a down on his luck kid who is trying to bring local gang warlord and controller of all, Taha to his knees. When things go a little 'tits up', Taha takes it upon himself to kidnap Leito's kid sister, and generally treat her like a slave (which includes keeping her on a leash, and feeding her drugs). Leito is betrayed and sent down for lashing out at the local police station (which is closing that very same day) and we fast forward six months to meet Damien, a hard arsed police officer who has just solved a huge case involving underground gambling. Having booted the big boss of that organization into the local nick, Damien is immediately given a new mission, to locate a bomb that has gone astray in District B13 before it goes off in less than 24 hours time. To help him, Damien grabs local kid Leito from inside to show him the walled borough and the two have to work together to get to the bomb, and indeed Leito's sister in time.

One thing about this movie, the action never stops, and only has CRANK to rival it in terms of pace and stunning non-CGI or wire based action. When I first saw this movie in cinemas, I didn't actually realise that the two main actors were not actors at all. In fact Cyril Raffaelli (Damien) is a stuntman/ fight choreographer, and has worked on films like TRANSPORTER 2 and KISS OF THE DRAGON (both Luc Besson sourced movies), while David Belle (Leïto) co-invented Parkour, the rooftop jumping activity that serves as a central theme to this movie.

Director Pierre Morel, a cinematographer that has also worked on a lot of Besson produced flicks makes his directorial debut, and serves up a feast of action, laughs and fast paced dialogue, which is the only drawback, as it's quite difficult to keep up with the subtitles as the movie rolls. Thankfully, as I said before, this is an action movie, and there isn't a great deal of dialogue driven scenes.

As I said in my original cinema review of the film, I had a great night out at the movies with DISTRICT B13. It should attract more here on the home format, and so it should as it thoroughly deserves more than the measly $1 million that it made at US cinemas this summer.

Extras are limited but interesting. First up there is an extended fight scene where we meet Damien for the first time. This takes place in the casino at the start of the second act. It's a little rough around the edges, but it's a nice addition that I enjoyed. Next there is a gag reel featuring the cast fluffing their lines, braking handcuffs and the what not. Standard stuff, but mildly amusing. We also get, and this is possibly the best thing about the release, a behind the scenes feature featuring the cast, director Morel and footage of the fight scenes being choreographed, practised, and then executed with little effects and wires. No Besson though.

In all this is a superb movie, and a reasonable disc. I advise that you watch the movie with English subtitles, as the dubbed version is laughable (Leito and his sis have Irish accents), and it's a little bit distracting from the movie itself.

Other than that, this could be one of the best action films of the year, and please, please do not be put off that it's in a foreign language!

GRADE: B

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