The District (no, the other one)

Over at No More Marriages, the recently returned Andy Horbal puts District B13 on his year end best list (and also make a good case for why we should appreciate the distribution benefits of the Oscars, even if the whole ceremony itself is a sham). I put the film in my year end best list as well (albeit in a special category reserved for unpretentious genre films), and, having just watched it again recently, I have to say, it holds up really nicely.

District B13, in fact, gets better and better with time. The prologue scene in the secret room and the ensuing action scene where the good cop is introduced... well, someone needs give director Pierre Morel about $200 million and the keys to the ILM wizard room.

Or better yet, don't, and just let him keep making really amazing little action films.

Plus, I love that it harkens back to late 70s B-movies in that it has a serious (but not, of course too serious) political message underlying the action--a laughably simplistic argument for French socialism and general governmental goodwill, of course--but the movie bothers to try to say something it believes in along with delivering the fun, and yet it never once lets its message get in the way of the fun (of which there is much).

On a side note, I can think of pretty much nothing that would give me as much cinematic glee as seeing the two leads of District B13--clearly the best new action stunt stars in the West--go up a against Tony Jaa and his equally jaw-dropping team of Thai stunt players. And maybe Jackie Chan could show up and play the wise mentor . . . any successful producers reading this, just drop me an email and I'll have a treatment at your doorstep like that.