Banlieue 13: Ultimatum

Plot synopsis:
Three years after the events of the original film, the authorities are attempting to return law and order to ravaged District 13. The death of gang overlord Taha Bemamud has left a power vacuum, and total control of the area is now being fought over by five rival territorial gang lords who want to step into Taha's position. After taking out a major drug dealer, Damien is framed for drug dealing and arrested, but manages to make a call to Leïto.Meanwhile, corrupt government agents from the Department of Internal State Security (DISS), led by Gassman are bent on destroying the five tower blocks at the heart of District 13 with tactical precision bombing, and building luxury flats after the area is cleared. In order to spark conflict with the district's gangs, they shoot several cops, dump their car in District 13, and prompt several gang members into gunning down the vehicle. The footage of the incident convinces the President to carry out the strike. However, a group of teens videotaped the agents as they shot the cops themselves. The DISS agents soon come after the teen to arrest him and seize the recording, but the youth manages to slip his memory card to Leïto.Leïto escapes the cops in District 13 and goes to rescue Damien. After freeing Damien from his cell, they discuss the events and further plans, resolving to gather enough proof to expose the DISS agents. While Damien distracts the guards, Leïto breaks into Gassman's office to steal his hard-drive for the evidence that they need. Once they escape and return to District 13, Damien and Leïto convince the five gang lords to band together to prevent the destruction of the district. While the French president struggles with the decision to destroy District 13 even with the area evacuated, a large number of gang members storm parliament. When they eventually reach the president and show him the information that they acquired, Gassman takes the president hostage and tries to force him to carry out the mass demolition. Leïto, Damien, and the gang lords succeed in freeing the president and incapacitating Gassman, earning the president's thanks and a promise to fund District 13's restoration.With the conflict over and District 13 completely evacuated, the gang lords then decide that it would be better to rebuild District 13 from anew rather than trying to patch up its remnants. The movie ends with the president authorizing the strike and breathing a sigh of relief.At the credits, there is a short clip showing the president, the gang lords, Damien and Leïto all joking around and smoking cigars together.

Tags: violence, realism

Review:
The first movie had arguably the best action sequences I'd seen for a long time, so it's no surprise for a sequel to pop up, which cranks up the action 10 fold.
Pretty good sequel with plenty of noisy acting , impressive stunts and breathtaking scenes.
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 .
¨13th District : ultimatum ¨ is an amazing film that packs suspense , thrills, noisy action , shootouts and violent fights .
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¨ .
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 .
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.
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 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.
I enjoyed it so much that I've just bought the first District 13 film on DVD from Amazon.Cyril Raffaelli makes a good hero in the Jason Stathan mold and I thought the fight choreography was exceptional - as good as anything that comes out of Hong Kong, more realistic than theatrical, and very effective for that.I was very impressed with Elodie Yung, too.
Fans looking for more of the amazing David Belle and the stunts of parkour will find these elements lacking in the sequel.
The story itself doesn't make much sense, but the moves are simply great.I have seen Banlieue 13 a long time ago and liked it for the action movie that it was, and this sequel was at least as packed with acrobatics, however I think it missed some of the feel of the first.Bottom line: Hard to say anything more about the movie.
B13 Ultimatum is simply a re-hash of the original B13, the latter merely serving as a stage for the incredible acrobatic stunts and action sequences displayed in the film.
The incredibly acrobatic pairing of Parkour pioneer, David Belle and martial arts maestro Cyril Raffaelli team up once again for this sequel to the simply breathtaking District 13.
Once again, a shady government faction has designs to blow up the place (there's a bit more to it than that actually but that's basically it in a nutshell!) and it's up to our boys to re-team in an effort to put a stop to their nefarious plans.Well, it has to be said that I concur with the general tide of opinion as regards this one; It's certainly a great watch in its own right yet pales against its predecessor not least of all due to the incredible Parkour displays which so elevated the original being extremely toned down here.......Why?!?!
Nonetheless, as if to balance this, Raffaelli at least gets to show off far more of his incredible fighting skills in some truly amazing sequences, the like which are so seldom seen outside of Hong Kong cinema.
Not The Original But Fun. The plot of District B13 Ultimatum is a lot sillier than the plot of the original movie, and our heroes are a bit older and as a result they move a bit slower, but this is nevertheless an entertaining sequel that you won't want to miss if you enjoyed the first one.
The free running is not as seamless as the original and there's some choppy editing to create the illusion of stunts rather than actually pulling them off, but this certainly isn't as bad of a sequel to a cult action flick as Ong Bak 3 was.
Luc Besson (of the Trasnporter series et al) wrote this script (or rather, this plan of choreography, as there is not a lot of spoken dialogue in this fast-paced thriller) and Patrick Allessandrin directs a story of a region of Paris (District 13) that is cordoned off the rest of Paris by a group of five warlords who manage to control the drug ridden violent region.
Basically the tale is that of two men - Captain Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) and undercover cop of the 'good' police and Leïto (David Belle), an ex-thug who in the previous film infiltrated a gang in order to defuse a neutron bomb.
The film opens some years later when District 13 is now in control of power over the government and the 'bad police' are attempting to destroy the area and rebuild according to their greedy plans.
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.
In my opinion is these the reasons for it: worse editing in the fights, shaky camera, too little Parkour, too little fights for Belle, some poor camera angles and too little screen time for Belle If they make a third film, which i think they will do.
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...
The story is just an excuse to give great scenes of parkour and martial arts action...
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.
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..
While I liked the parkour and the action there wasn't anything significantly different from the first movie which proved disappointing.
All that's required of writer-producer Luc Besson is to spin preposterous, half-arsed plots around Belle's 'running, jumping and rarely standing still' shtick to create 90 minutes of stupefying spectacle, a delirious, laugh-out-loud no-brainer.But if the original could have benefited from even less story than it actually had, this one's certainly ironed out the problem.
When I watched Banlieu 13 which was released in 2004, the first impression was: "Wow!" The action-packed movie was filled with parkour, or the art of movement.
How the fight scenes were performed by the lead actors David Belle (especially) and Cyril Raffaelli made the original Banlieu 13 a joy to behold, offering something unique in the action genre.
Of course, the story was practically simple and the ending was easy to predict.The sequel takes place in 2013, three years after the first movie.
I enjoyed this sequel a decent amount, I'll get that out of the way, but like the 1st it relies on its crazy action sequences and cool characters to get it over the hill.
These movies rely on crazy stunts and thrilling action sequences, and while they certainly deliver on that part, I really found the story to be superficial and rather mediocre.
Raffaelli has one incredible fight scene at the start of the movie, that really blew me away with how crazy it was, and some of his stunts were spectacular.
This film tells the story of a policeman and a district 13 resident, who investigate the reasons for strange clashes and unreasonable arrests."Banlieue 13: Ultimatum" has a very impressive beginning.
But this time around for "Ultimatum" it focuses too much on the plot for it's own good and tries to make it seem like one of those "Bourne" films which doesn't really work.
Basically the bad guys that are in high authority wants to blow up the ghetto district, by convincing the president to launch a bomb on the ghettos in "B13" by trying to somewhat frame some of the gangs in "B13".
Great fights, stunts and a good story which lead to a satisfying ending.
Great fights, stunts and a good story which lead to a satisfying ending.
The first movie had arguably the best action sequences I'd seen for a long time, so it's no surprise for a sequel to pop up, which cranks up the action.
One of the better movies of the year unsurprisingly and I say that because I knew what to expect whilst watching this film and I wasn't disappointed.
One of the better movies of the year unsurprisingly and I say that because I knew what to expect whilst watching this film and I wasn't disappointed.
I saw District B13 randomly in the movies when it first came out with my friend with no pretense only knowing it was an European action flick.
DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM is very much a lesser sequel to the first film, which was an unexpected hit that brought humour, martial arts and Parkour to the screen in a fresh, inventive way.
This time around, the freshness is gone along with director Pierre Morel, who went and made the excellent TAKEN with Liam Neeson instead.Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad film, it just doesn't have the edge that made the original so good.
I would have thought the filmmakers would have done everything in their power to top what came before, but they just don't have the guts to do so.One area the film excels in is the action, and in particular the fight scenes involving the excellent Cyril Raffaelli.
Two years have passed since elite police officer Damien Tomasso (Cyril Raffaelli) teamed up with reformed vigilante Leito (parkour originator David Belle) to save the notorious District 13, a racially charged ghetto populated by violent drug dealing gangs and vicious killers.
The first one was pure adrenaline with non-stop action, a ton of fighting sequences and a lot of Parkour in between, Ultimatum has a few cool sequences but nothing as fun and exciting as the first.
To the French there can be more greater act of treason than emulating Hollywood but this can be forgiven when you've got a film more enjoyable than anything Michael Bay can direct If there's a downside to the movie its set pieces are the selling point and the whole narrative is written around the action scenes .
Yes some may argue that a film like this should be focused on the action and not what's said, but the overall experience is nonetheless irrevocably marred.Picking off directly where we last left off with Captain Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli), Leito (David Belle) and Leito's sister Lola (being forgotten in this sequel) parted ways to jog your memory on who the top dogs are, the opening few minutes brings us up to speed where Damien and Leito are in their lives.
We get a special effects laden camera-work zooming in and out of a digitized city during the opening credits, before ample time's taken to show Leito still being the pain in the behind for the police with his District 13 antics, while Damien continues in building up his reputation as the go-to man for police stings, having single- handedly (ok, with fists and kicks) bring down an entire vice operations.Which provides for plenty of action in the film as Damien fights his way out of a trapped club, and probably one of the longest action sequences with hard-hitting action involving the playful maneuver of a Van Gogh piece.
Fans of Parkour though will have to wait a little longer for David Belle's Leito to strut his stuff, and the co-founder of Parkour doesn't fail to impress, especially with his one man escape from the cops atop rooftops, which warrant this particular segment a second watch as it's likely to serve as inspiration to all Parkour practitioners.Other than that the plot forces our dynamic duo to cooperate once more as they take on corrupt internal security who has been stringing the French President along with their naughty plan of creating havoc between the cops and the denizens of District 13, now with five different ethnic groups trying to fill a power vacuum created from the previous film, and Luc Besson tries hard to make it something of a political thriller as well, which director Patrick Alessandrin tended to shelve aside and include only as a necessary filler in between action sequences, which get larger and louder, only for the climax to falter with too many cooks spoiling the broth.
Three years after the events of the first film, Parisian cop Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) and good-hearted hood Leito (David Belle) find themselves teaming up again.
I will tell you about Banlieue 13 ultimatum.I don't like action movies but here, I find this movie excellent for these reasons: the story, the cast and the music.The story is not difficult to understand.A big wall surrounds the suburb 13 because in these suburbs, there are five gangs which are illegal.Leito and her friends Damien will try to stop the chaos with all the bosses of the five gangs.The film was released in 2009, directed by Patrick Alessandrin and produced by Luc Besson.The cast is composed of David Belle, Cyril Raffaelli, La Fouine, MC Jean Gab'1 and Danielle Duval.The movie happens three years after the first suburb 13.Sci-fi, thriller and action are the genres of the movie.La Fouine made a song for the movie.The production have filmed a scene in Serbia, in the city of Novi Beograd.The scene about Leito who is followed by the secret police of the government: I love this scene because Leito (who is agile) jumps on a lot of buildings.I recommend this film to you..
D13 Ultimatum is the sequel to the 2004 French cult flick District B13, a superstylized action movie boasting awe inspiring martial arts and mind blowing parkour.Directed by Pierre Morel (Taken, From Paris with Love) and produced by Luc Besson, District B13 garnered a large fan base in the years after its release, and I strongly encourage anybody with a remote interest in the action genre to seek it out.
Having just viewed it, I'm here to report that like most sequels to great movies, it was alright but nowhere near the original in quality.
The movie has decent production values, and the two leads played by David Belle (co- founder of parkour) and Cyril Raffaelli (the dude who jumps out of the helicopter in Live Free or Die Hard) return.
But a lot of the story is just a retread of last time, and the same can be said of the action sequences.
Just about everyone is corrupt, I guess echoing what they think is a common belief nowadays.************Spoilers************** There were some great scenes, when dude gets nailed in the kahunas- not the typical Hollywood ending where the arch villain has to 'die' harder than everyone else after a protracted fight.Then there's all the gang losers banding together and taking the president's word- These were the ones who profited by lives of crime that the district allowed- Then they trust a politician?!
Although the film is VERY unrealistic through scenes like meetings with the president, bombs to destroy the ghetto around Paris or jumps through windows directly into the car, i really like it because it's a typical funny and action-filled movie as we know it from Luc Besson, and it reminds me slightly of "The Transporter" , maybe because Cyril Raffaelli almost looks the same as Jason Statham and also their fight-styles are similar.
One thing i have to say is, that after the first film the story is a little bit repeating itself, the fights between the gangs and the drama around "banlieue 13" were already in the previous story, but in fact most of the viewers don't want to see a intelligent film with deep background, the incredible moves, jumps and fights between David Belle and the Police, the Action around the "ghettogangs", thats what convinces me to like this film..
He does this by a pretty elaborate scheme but 2 people - a cop and a criminal who do stunts so over-the-top The Matrix would call "bullshit" on them find out about the plan and get the leaders of every gang to leave District 13 and stop the evil guy.Okay, let me describe to you what kind of movie you're in for with how a character from this movie handles a bomb.
I'm going to mention what I think is wrong with this movie) Okay the over-the-top scenes are fun to watch there is some time spent with people talking.
But time is running out.As I said at the beginning, I have not seen the original film, District 13, so I can't judge whether this is better or not.