District B13

Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita) produced and cowrote this kick-ass 2004 thriller, which takes place in and around some strangely depopulated ghetto high-rises outside Paris in the year 2010 and involves drug-dealing gangs, corrupt cops, and a nuclear device. This is every bit as silly and adolescent as you’d expect from Besson, and about as contemporary as The Perils of Pauline. But I was delighted by the balletic and acrobatic stunts, some of which evoke Tarzan. Pierre Morel directed; with Cyril Raffaelli, David Belle, Tony D’Amario, and Bibi Naceri. In French with subtitles. R, 85 min. (JR)

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