Chinese kung fu fans

If you were a fan of 2004’s “Banlieue 13”, then “Banlieue 13: Ultimatum” is more of the same. It’s nothing close to being a brain teaser, and the film’s storyline is really just an excuse for stars David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli to show off their physical abilities. I could be wrong, but it seems as if Raffaelli has been practicing in the five years since the first movie, because he easily steals the show from Belle, who seemed to be leaps and bounds ahead of him when it came to the physical stunts in the first film. In fact, Belle mostly just runs around, through, and over people and things in the sequel, while Raffaelli shows off some impressive martial arts skills in a couple of lengthy fights that even the Hong Kong guys could appreciate.

“Ultimatum” was produced and written by Luc Besson, and is directed by Patrick Alessandrin, who opens the film with some groovy camerawork to set up the current state of District 13. The rest of the film see-saws between gritty (the District 13 gangs are violent and intimidating) to silly action movie conventions (Damien and Leito take on the French cops about once every five minutes, or so it seems), with some great stunt work across the board. Of course, as with the first movie, “Ultimatum” is sold on the physical prowess of its two leading men, which Alessandrin shows off with great aplomb in the film’s ridiculous series of action sequences, all the while keeping Besson’s script moving along at a brisk enough pace to keep it from killing the flow of the action. The sequel actually has a higher martial arts quotient than the first one, with a nice balance of featured parkour stunts by Belle and physical ass kicking by Raffaelli.

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