/* */ Hi Pal.. Film4thwall has been moved to PIXMONK - my new home :).: Banlieue 13 ultimatum - Jumplingam

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Banlieue 13 ultimatum - Jumplingam

Parkour [ டுபாக்கூர் இல்லைங்க‌ !]


In my early days, I used to wait for 'Fights' in the title card and walk away if I don’t see the same. I convince sometimes 'Stunts' or 'Action' in the title card too. I was happy to see Judo rathnam, Hayath, Shyam Sundar (shetty), Kirubaa, Vikram Dharma in the title card. We used to fight with sound effects [ Dishkaal ] with our friends :). In Telugu films, I never wait for the stunts in title card - because by default the film starts with a fight. Our super advertiser Kalaipuli Dhanu advertised for his Vijaykanth starred movie "Nallavan" that 'South India answers to Jackie Chan :) [ எல்லான் ஒரு வெள‌ம்ப‌ர‌ந்தான்ணே ! ]


Then it's the days of Jackie Chan - he is the real master in fights which are choreographed almost like a dance with perfect timing. Bruce lee fights more like a monk. The later arrivals like Jetli and co spoiled my interest towards the fight movies and also the Chinese movie Crouching tiger, hidden dragon.
After a long time, I interestingly watched the chase n fights in 'Bourne identity' series. Then came the superb chase n fight sequence in 'Casino Royale' - that's the real fight in Bond movies - a classic 8 mins chase. First time, Bond ran for a full length jumping n diving without an ultra modern car. The fight was a real treat to watch. Later, I liked the fights in 'Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu' [ Stun Siva ] and Ayan. Ayan had this good fight sequences in Congo. Though the stunt master is Kanal Kannan, 2 South African stunt coordinators were used in Ayan. Seeing the response, Sun pictures has hired them in 'Aadhavan' [ the new Surya film ] too. Watch the title cards in the ads.

Our gentleman Kathir told me that it was Parkour and introduced this new form of sport ! Parkour came from a French word parcour meaning 'go fast'. Parkour is a free style running, jumping, climbing, diving immaterial of the place where they do it. It requires a very high standard of physical flexibility and mental fitness. No wonder, British and US marines introduce parkour as part of their military training. The different between a normal chase and parkour chase is that the normal chase ends when a dead end [ a locked high rise fence :) ] comes up but the parkour chase has no obstacles.

Banlieu 13 ultimatum

The story starts after 3 years from the first part. The government authorities try to settle down the area called 'District 13'. Not many changes happen to the place; instead the place become more worse with guns, drug trafficking, garbage and violence. Also they have so many groups divided by the races and nationalities [ underworld gangs ]. Arabs, Chinese, African American, Mexican and native French warlords share the place.

There's a good guy from the cops and one from the local rogue gang. They team up against all the odds to save the district 13 from troubles. For a parkour stunts based movie, the plot is more than enough to run, dive, jump, twist, swing, climb, roll, drop, leap and what not !!

View

Just take away your age, go back to your school days and enjoy. The film has the perfect elements of fights, suspense, 2 unstoppable and physics defying heroes with a mission. Also, they are accompanied by the perfect teams of small groups and their heads [ typical supporting roles that you find in Telugu movies ]. What you get is 'Gilli' like action packed thriller. The music played a very good match [ rythmic beats ] just accompanying the tempo of the movie.

David Belle has acted as the local rogue - You know what.. He is one of the founders of Parkour and is a treceur. This is actually the second part of Banlieu 13. There are more movies based on Parkour sport. Yamakasi [ உத‌ய‌ம்‍க்கு அடுத்த‌ ஸ்டாப்புங்க‌ளா ?! :) ], Bourne ultimatum, Die hard 4.0. The good part is that all the stunts are original and not cheated with rope stunts or computer graphics. True fight film freaks never liked those cheap n rope techniques for fights.

Thanks to my friend Crankx who suggested this movie. His comment to this film was ' Just dub this in telugu and release it directly '. I second him.


:)

-Toto.

2 comments:

  1. Oscar Movies Ravichandran became a big name only by distributing Jackie Chan movies in Tamil Nadu and also later dubbing super hit english movies in Tamil.Stunts are acceptable, at least when the hero has a personality like say Sarath kumar.
    But watching Vijay and kids thrash dozens at one go is gut wrenching! that is perhaps a curse of tamil films. may be with the advent of new age directors and heroes, there would be stunts with more realistic concepts.

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  2. Thanks Rajan. Jackie Chan sent a letter to his fans and that was placed in the notice board of Alankar theatre. Drunken monk days.. ha.ha. It's always better to avoid Vijay and co. crap films.

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