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For the twin offenses of being French and not starring Tom Cruise, District B13 — a fanboy mashup of John Carpenter's greatest hits — is getting exiled to the art-house ghetto. Spread the word: This delirious import is the most (maybe the only) fun action movie of the summer —...

By Jim Ridley

June 15, 2006

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For the twin offenses of being French and not starring Tom Cruise, District B13 — a fanboy mashup of John Carpenter's greatest hits — is getting exiled to the art-house ghetto. Spread the word: This delirious import is the most (maybe the only) fun action movie of the summer — swift, funny, filled with actual stunts instead of digitized mayhem, and primed at a moment's notice for megaton ass-kicking. Set in 2010 Paris, it fuses Escape from New York's futuristic city-as-prison concept with Assault on Precinct 13's bristling political subtext, as an undercover cop (Cyril Raffaelli) and a vigilante (David Belle) battle their way through a walled-in underclass neighborhood while searching for a massive "clean bomb." The plot is mostly straight-to-video silliness, except for a final kicker that feeds off the real-life unrest seething in Paris's strife-torn suburbs. But Belle — a master of parkour, the French extreme sport/martial art devoted to the casual hurdling of physical obstacles — brings an exhilarating athleticism to the many chases and fights.

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