French Action Rules!

After going to see the new Luc Besson-produced movie District B-13, I tried to remember the last American action movie I saw that didn't suck. The first one that popped into my mind was Terminator 2, but that's because I saw it the day after I saw Luc Besson's amazing La Femme Nikita, in what was possibly the best movie-going weekend of my life.

The Matrix, of course, comes to mind, but its reputation is tarnished by the subsequent 2 Matrix films. Spiderman 2 also merits a mention, but it's not a straight up action movie. Die Hard? Predator? Those are even older. What has happened to the American action film?

Now, I don't want to make District B-13 seem better than it is. It's no masterpiece. The plot, about a neutron bomb that has been captured by a group of thugs inside of one of Paris's most dangerous ghettos (The B-13 of the title), is barely adequate to contain the action. But what is more than adequate - in fact, downright awesome - is the action.

To answer my earlier question, one of the problems with the American action film is its over-reliance on CGI. For example, take the scene in The Matrix Reloaded, where Neo fights the hundreds of Agent Smiths. When the actors in the scene look like real people, it's a spectacular fight. But when the CGI takes over towards the end of the scene, it falls apart. Why? Because there's nothing breathtaking about watching pixels fight. The core of a great action sequence is that it looks like it's happening to real people.

District B-13 gets it. Early in the movie, Leito, one of the film's heroes, is running from a group of bad guys, jumping from roof to roof, and flipping across stairwells with breathtaking grace...literally. (In one moment, he slid through a narrow window above a doorway and the entire audience gasped in awe). And it doesn't let up. Director Pierre Morel keeps the right distance from the action, keeping our attention focused on the actors' mad fight skills without distracting editing or cuts (another thing that American directors haven't figured out how to do yet). Later in the film, when Leito and the cop Damien team up to stop the bomb and rescue Leito's kidnapped sister, their perfectly synchronized punches and kicks are exhilarating to watch.

I would never have guessed that the French would be the ones to figure out how to incorporate Hong Kong style into the Western action genre. But maybe I shouldn't be surprised. When I think a little harder about the last action movie I saw that didn't suck, it's not an American one that comes to mind, but another French one - Brotherhood of the Wolf. Maybe American filmmakers should start paying attention.

Posted by bethdeth at June 19, 2006 08:34 AM