District 13 U

Another freerunning film. It has been a while since the discovery of this incredible freerunning french film. Since then a few other films with free running in have featured on the blog and I had forgotten that no film, not even Ninja Assassin could trump this film for freerunning.

District 13 Ultimatum has no wires, no stunt doubles, just the two main guys running and fighting- if they fall and die, they die and there would be no film. Some of the stunts were incredible- jumping out of a window that in England would have been considered at least 4 stories high to land on the roof of a car, roll and the get up like nothing had happened. The bruises landing probably would have killed me if I had tried to do it but for those guys they are used to it. Yes- there were almost definitely crash mats underneath the window but even so, I would be winded if I had to do that but I'm not as fit and agile as those guys.

What to expect from this film? The same thing found in the first film. Similar plot, same characters and why would you change a winning formula? With a film like this you watch it to admire the action. You can guess the plot but they did the right thing and stopped after making the second film because something as predictable as this solely relies on the stunts and fight scenes to keep it in demand. The audience is very specific. This film is a real action film- we saw promises of what freerunning could do in the made up scenes at the beginning of Casino Royal with Sebastien Foucan but it didn't really reach the heights that it was expected to until Parkour became a popular thing. Turns out that with the father of freerunning being french, freerunning is popular in France and so if you can handle watching a film in french and using subtitles you can just enjoy what an true action film is.

Better than the first film simply because when you know what to expect they have to raise their game to impress you and this film managed it from the moment that the film kicked off.

On this blog we try to have films from all genres. This may not have been something that interested you and I can't guarantee that every night there will be something that does interest you- I can't please everyone that stumbles across this blog but by watching different types of films I hope that somewhere along the line someone will stumble on a film that interested them and will watch new films.