District B13/District 13: Ultimatum 2-Pack [Blu-ray]

District B13 (Banlieue 13) is your standard low budget action flick, lots of action sequences and fight scene with a weak plot about a ghetto district in Paris where the gangs are so bad, that the French gov't built a wall around it. Now in 2010, with no hope of bringing peace to the district, the French gov't is going to blow up the district with a bomb. Our two heroes fight their way to the bomb only to fight over whether the bomb is going to blow up or deactivate when the time reaches zero. The 2 heroes bring the bomb to the presidents office and use it to persuade him to open up district 13 and tear down the wall. District 13: Ulimatum (Banlieue 13: Ultimatum) is the sequel, with a slightly higher budget, better camera work and a deeper plot. Surprise, nothing has changed, the wall is still up and gangs still control district 13. Now in 2013, big surprize 2012 didn't happen, the French gov't has become corrupted and is sparking a war between the gangs and police to convince the president to blow up district 13. The Department of Internal State Security is taking care of anyone that will get in the way of their plot including our 2 heroes. Leito breaks Damien out of jail and the two snoop around in police headquarters and find out what's what. Paris is about to erupt in riots, and the president is about to blow up district 13. So our 2 heroes and the 5 gang lords unite to break into the control room where the president is about blow up district 13 and expose DISS' plot to the president. After stopping the president from blowing up the district *spoiler* the 5 gang leaders and leito agree it's best just to rebuild and the president blows up the district anyway. *spoilers* As you can see from my plot summaries the sequel has more plot, which does mean less action but makes it a more well rounded movie. I perfer the French audio as the English audio is just a word for word translation without much thought toward lip syncing and can get annoying. Bottom line: If you just want a flick like Mortal Kombat just go with District B13. If you like plot more than action get District 13: Ultimatum. If both sound good, get this.

A super fun ride. Very enjoyable, lots of action. It is a French movie, so be ready for it to be dubbed from French to English. The dubbing is quite good though.

Movie was in good shape and played well.

This movies are extremelly fun and entertaining to watch. I like a lot the parkour action scenes and the fighting stunts. This is what action movies should be like, not with some fancy classical music score in the background that distracts you from the action ("Mm.. I wonder if it's a violin or a clarinet in the background, bom bom bom BOM!! shazzz!! Oh crap, I missed the action just for thinking about that!!! -all the time-"), or the usual machine made cloned action script that we see all the time in movies, or with fancy CGI-Green/Blue Screen, that once again with the movie score, distracts you from the action on the screen ("That DEFINITELY looks like CGI, and that definitely looks like the actor(s) used a wire(s)"), or when you are looking at a cool fight scence and the cameras shift back and forth quickly between angles, thus not allowing you to appreciate the fight scene as a whole, as it is pretty common today in most Hollywood made movies. I would highly recommend this 2 movies to anyone who likes FUN action and fighting movies without much fancy stuff to them than a good fun plot and cool fighting/action scenes with awesome real stunts. I would also recommend Ong-Bak 1 & 2, The Protector (With Tony Jaa), since this movie reminds me a lot of them. I first found this movies on the web in french, I had to get the Blu-ray with the english dub since I'm not very fluent in french yet, the dub is worth it if you don't speak french. The only thing I didn't like was that part 2 seemed a little "short", and the lenguage was a little stupid and senselessly obscene on the first part, other than that this are instant classics that anyone who likes FUN action movies should own.

Yes, I do mean that: these are among the best action movies ever made -- but I'll qualify by adding "which involve humans doing athletic things", such as martial arts movies. (I like the other kinds too, BTW.) But if you enjoy watching incredibly gifted athletes doing great stunts done in a very believable way, and don't mind preposterous plots, then these movies might tickle your fancy. Just being able to watch David Belle (said to be the founder of parkour/parcour) is worth the price in my opinion. So remember, don't expect any Profound Commentary on the Human Condition (thank goodness). Don't get too hung up on the silliness or the stereotypes, that's part of the fun. Just relax and enjoy great escapist fun with a good companion or two.

Item arrived in good condition

This movie's plot is unnecessary. All there is to it is the physical capabilities of people who are excellent at parkour. There are no stunt doubles or computers helping out by faking the activities the actors participate in. Watch these movies as though you were watching the Olympics and marvel at the almost supernatural abilities some people possess, and you will enjoy them. If you're expecting clever dialogue or character development, that's not what these movies are about, and that's okay. They stick to one area they excel at, and they outperform other movies at their specialty. Would highly recommend to action fans. Just don't think you can run out of your home theater and jump off a building afterward.

I was happy to find out that these are the master tracks and not the lousy dubbed versions. Picture and sound are excellent. Movies are awesome action packed treats. Been a fan of these since the original dvd days, pre-Blu-ray.