I saw this French import last night. It's an action movie (unusual for French films) that owes a lot to HK films of the 80's and early 90's. It's largely (if not completely) devoid of wire action. Instead, it OSG (old school gangster) action film. Guys jump from roof to roof, quick climb poles, and other acrobatic maneuvers.
Act 1 - a good guy from the ghetto steals some drugs so he can destroy them. Drugs are destroying his neighborhood (District B13). The thugs show up to get their drugs back but he has already destroyed them and evades capture. They kidnap his sister but he breaks into their fortress and they escape with the drug lord as a hostage. When they get back to the police station, the police captain lets the kingpin go and he takes the girl to make her his junkie sex slave. The good guy kills the cop in retaliation and is sent to prison.
Act 2 - an undercover cop infiltrates a different gang and facilitates the capture of the gang leader. When he gets back to the station, he is informed that he has been selected by the Feds to recover a stolen missile that the drug lord from Act 1 has stolen and is ransoming. He will go undercover as a prison con and escape from prison with the good guy from Act 1.
Act 3 - the two guys (after some initial distrust) team up to get the missile back and rescue his sister. The rest of the film is them escaping the fortress to get to the missile site on the roof of an adjacent building. There is a subplot about the missile being deliberately placed in District B13 to destroy it.
I enjoyed this movie a lot. It was a fun change of pace from the Mission Impossible type FX or the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon wire action. |