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Action movie fans are in for a treat this month, as one of the most underrated examples of the genre (and one helmed by Taken director Pierre Morel no less) is all set to land on free streaming. Released more than two decades ago in 2004, District B13 boasts all manner of martial arts, shoot-outs, explosions, breathtaking parkour, and even social commentary as it drops audiences in the far-flung future of, erm, 2010 and one of the poor, crime-ridden suburbs of Paris: Banlieue 13, Aka B13.

Helmed by the creative team behind Liam Neeson’s action movie renaissance hit Taken, director Pierre Morel, and writer and producer Luc Besson, District B13 stars David Belle as main character Leïto, a rebel who lives within the confines of B13, with underrated martial arts actor Cyril Raffaelli as Damien Tomaso, an undercover officer who joins forces with Leïto after the pair are targeted by a merciless gangster,...

Festival midnight slates are always teeming with Z-grade splatter comedies like “Girls with Balls,” which offer the uncomplicated pleasure of attractive young people fighting for their lives in the great outdoors. But first-time director Olivier Afonso, a skilled makeup-effects artist on such films as “Raw” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” could have complicated his hillbillies-versus-athletes scenario a little more than he has. Is there a scene where members of a women’s volleyball team spike balls into the faces of their adversaries? Of course. Yet that’s about as far as the conceit takes this chaotic, toothless, unfunny Gallic twist on “The Most Dangerous Game,” and it’s not even enough to reach 80 minutes. Netflix has served it up for less discriminate genre fans, however, who are advised to bypass the default dubbed version and watch it in French with subtitles.

The extreme French horror movement of the...

Catalina Denis cast in Paul Walker thriller Model and film actress Catalina Denis has been cast as the female lead opposite Paul Walker (Fast & Furious 6) and David Belle (Malavita) in Camille Delamarre’s Brick Mansions. The action thriller is EuropaCorp and Relativity Media’s English-language remake of the 2004 French-made action / thriller District B13. In Brick Mansions, Paul Walker incarnates an undercover cop out to defuse a bomb in possession of drug warlord RZA. Catalina Denis will play David Belle’s romantic interest. Luc Besson, who specializes in run-of-the-mill, Hollywood-style French-made action thrillers, is one of the film’s producers. Directed by Pierre Morel (Taken, From Paris with Love), and co-written by Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri, District B13 / Banlieue 13 stars David Belle, Cyril Raffaelli, Dany Verissimo-Petit, and co-screenwriter Naceri. The film performed modestly at the French box office; according to Box Office Mojo, District B13 was no. 51 on France’s 2004 box-office chart,...