District B-13 (Banlieue 13)

Directed by: Pierre Morel
Country of Origin: France
Richard's Rating (7 out of 10)

I wasn't expecting much going in to this movie, but I was immediately impressed when the action started. B-13 is written by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, The Professional, La Femme Nikita), so you know the action will probably be better than your average movie. The movie is set in 2010 Paris where the worst neighborhoods are sectioned off from the city to curb crime. One of the heroes, Leito (David Bell), crosses a local crimeboss Ta Ha. So after stealing a nuclear weapon, Ta Ha kidnaps Leito's sister. During a rescue attempt, Leito is arrested by corrupt police. The French government sends an undercover supercop, Damien (Cyril Raffaelli), to break Leito out and enlist him to stop Ta Ha from detonating the bomb. B-13 separates itself from other action movies with it's chase scenes and innovative fights. They use the sport of Parkour, which was invented by the main character David Bell. Parkour is a style of running that allows runners to overcome larger than normal obstacles. Chase scenes involve increasingly larger jumps in an urban environment. The two heroes must fight their way past Ta Ha and his small army to deactivate the bomb and save Leito's sister. The action in this movie is non stop and definitely worth checking out.

-Richard

301/302

Directed by - Park Cheol-Su
Country of Origin - South Korea
Nick's Rating: (5 out of 10)


What? Another South Korean Film? Yes dammit! A bunch of bad-ass movies come out of South Korea and I have yet to even scratch the surface. This is a really good movie. Notice I said, "Good" and not "Great". What stops it from being great is that this movie drags much like Michael Mann's movie "Heat" . . . not that Heat's a bad movie just that it seemed 2 hours too long. And there's a sex scene (Wahoo! Uhh wait, actually it's more like . . . Zzzzz) that seems to go on for about 10 minutes. Really the scene only lasts about 3 minutes but it's so passionless and seems to have no real purpose in the movie that it causes time, as we know it, to slow down and create a vortex of boredom. Other than those problems the movie is very disturbing and has you wondering just exactly what will become of these two female neighbors who are both completely out of their minds due to past abusive relationships. Beware! Food is a big motif in this film, so when you're not about to be sick to your stomach because of something very twisted that you just observed, you're hungry from looking at food being constantly prepared or eaten. All-in-all it's a good film and totally worth seeing. Who knows, you might totally disagree with me and think that every scene has a definite purpose to the over-all telling of the story, but just to be safe keep your finger on the fast-forward button.

-Nick

Sympathy For Lady Vengeance

Directed by - Park Chan-Wook
Country of Origin - South Korea
Nick's Rating: (8 out of 10)


Park Chan-Wook is by far my favorite South Korean director. His films engulf me to the point where it feels like I'm being tortured with the protagonist, and HOLY CRAP are his protagonists tortured. Chan-Wook's movies tend to be very hard to watch and this film is no different. The third part of a trilogy which also includes the movies "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Old Boy", Lady Vengeance is probably the easier to sit through. I can best compare it to Clint Eastwood's movie "Million Dollar Baby" where the viewer has become emotionally drained by the time the ending credits start rolling, but this is a very common trait for Chan-Wook's films. Actress Lee Young Ae does a great job in her role as a woman that has been just released from prison after serving time for being falsely accused of a child's murder. She is, of course, now on a mission to find the real murderer and make him pay in the most painful way possible, thanks to Chan-Wook's twisted imagination. Again, this movie is very graphic but if you like a great story please check it out . . . I have yet found an American revenge movie that even comes close to any of the films in this vengeance trilogy.

-Nick