Posts Tagged ‘parkour’

Freerunner

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

tn_freerunnerIf a DTV movie comes out and it’s called FREERUNNER, it’s gotta have some parkour stunts in it, right? So what can you do, you give it a shot. Or at least I do. I remember a couple years ago Channing Tatum from FIGHTING was supposed to star in a movie called PARKOUR. That never happened but I guess we have its would-be-counterpart here, starring the guy from NEVER BACK DOWN.

I forgot all about it after Michael Jai White’s NEVER BACK DOWN 2, but the star of part 1, Sean Faris, looks and acts an awful lot like Tom Cruise. But FREERUNNER is pretty low-rent for Tom Cruise even when he was younger. It’s not good, but it’s not the usual type of churned-out-dispassionately bad DTV, it’s more of a scrappy independent we-gotta-get-this-shot-somehow production. It’s artisan crap.
(more…)

4 people like this post.
Unlike

Tags: , ,
Posted in Action, Reviews | 12 Comments »

Banlieue 13 – Ultimatum

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

tn_b13uSo I watched this poorly subtitled Chinese import of BANLIEUE 13 – ULTIMATUM, which I think is about to be released dubbed in the US as DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM, the sequel to what we call DISTRICT B13, which pretty much translates to “District District 13.” This one reunites Cyril Rafaelli (last seen tossed into a fan by John McClane) and David Belle for more near-future parkour and martial arts action.

It’s 3 years later and the government has made good on its promise for regime change, but nothing else. The district is still walled in, and the cops still treat everybody like shit. Leito (Belle) doesn’t want to let it go so he has a hobby of strolling around casually attaching bombs to walls and blowing shit up. Then he gets chased by cops and the gangs, or “clans,” get pissed at him because they sort of like their lives behind the walls and don’t want him fucking it up. (more…)

2 people like this post.
Unlike

Tags: , ,
Posted in Action, Reviews | 18 Comments »

District B13

Wednesday, April 4th, 2007

(originally BANLIEUE 13)

I’m way behind on this movie. I remember a couple years ago I went to see some movie at the film festival here, and this one was just getting out on the same screen. I saw some people I knew coming out and I asked them how it was. They said it was ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK except in France, and with some weird martial art where they run up walls and shit. I knew it was a Luc Besson joint so I thought wait a minute, is this related to that YAMAKASI movie I saw? The art of climbing and flipping?

Now it’s years later and the movie has long since played American theaters and DVD players in a dubbed version called DISTRICT B13. The advertising campaign has tried to convince us we know what the word “parkour” means. Another practicioner of the art has battled (and lost) the new, badass James Bond. Now it’s old news, the excitement has worn off, so I saw it now. That’s just how I roll.

Well, it really is an ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK ripoff – the poor neighborhood District B13 has been walled off just like New York was, and our hero is a badass released from prison to go into B13 and do a mission for the man. Only instead of saving the president he has to find a nuclear bomb that’s in the hands of his enemy, and instead of Ernest Borgnine he’s teamed up with a cop, and instead of having an eyepatch he doesn’t have an eyepatch.

But despite the similarity, the whole look, tone, spirit and poetry of the movie is nothing like ESCAPE. What it’s more like is exactly what it is: an action movie produced and written by Luc Besson. Fun and energetic if not entirely memorable. I liked it though. (more…)

2 people like this post.
Unlike

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Action, Crime, Reviews, Science Fiction and Space Shit | No Comments »

Yamakasi – Les samouraïs des temps modernes

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

This movie is about as corny as they make em, but I kinda liked it. Supposedly the stars here are a real group of young fellas who are known for climbing up buildings, jumping off buildings, sliding down ropes and all that sort of shit. Sort of like the poor french man’s cirque du soleil.

So Luc Besson found out about them and decided to make a movie showcasing their talents. This is kinda what Besson does if you think about it. I haven’t seen KISS OF THE DRAGON yet but that was his attempt to make a better English language Jet Li vehicle than ROMEO MUST DIET. FIFTH ELEMENT was a vehicle for the detailed sci-fi world he had created when he was in boarding school. And what was THE MESSENGER if not a vehicle for his lolita bride of the time, Milla Jovovich, who he manages to make look stunning even with a pageboy haircut and splattered with blood and dirt. Now he’s doing the same thing but for some guys who run around and jump off things and what not.

So I’m not clear if these really are the real Yamakasi or not, but the story is about 7 dudes of different nationalities. They are very white bread multi-cultural – you got the asian guy, the other guys, etc. All very hunky and most lacking in personality. However they make up for this with their ability to do flips and shit.

Each has an obvious nickname based on their specialty – for example Rocket runs real fast, Baseball throws objects, Spider slides down a rope. They find ridiculous ways for them to use these talents such as when Baseball stops a mugger, who for some reason steals a purse inside a grocery store (instead of shoplifting), by beaning the fucker in the head with a can of peaches or something.

In the opening scene we learn that the Yamakasi are some kind of rebel folk heroes and loved by all children like Santa Clause or Michael Jackson (in his videos only, not real life). They are so worried about children imitating their stunts that they only climb at dawn. They climb up the side of a building like Spiderman and then huge squads of police arrive to chase them and fail to catch them. (more…)

Unlike

Tags: ,
Posted in Action, Crime, Reviews | No Comments »