B

When Nabokov said there was nothing quite so exhilarating as philistine vulgarity, he might have been thinking of a movie like “District B13,” which is nothing more than high-octane junk but turns out to be junk that’s literally light on its feet and exuberantly silly. It’s just a chop-socky buddy picture pitting an odd-couple match-up of cop and convict against a bunch of scummy low-lives in a confined environment–one of the oldest set-ups in the world. But thanks to some charismatic turns at the top, swift, in-your-face direction and chase-and-fight choreography that–like that in “Ong Bak”–depends for its impact less on special effects trickery than on breath-taking real-life stunts, it’s surprisingly effective.

The giddy exhilaration of the picture comes as rather a surprise given that it’s the brainchild of Luc Besson, whose efforts along similar lines have been mind-numbingly dreary (e.g., the two frantic but horrible “Transporter” movies). Perhaps the fact that it’s in French rather than English helps. Or maybe it’s just the curiously low-key but electric personality of David Belle, inventor of the “sport” known as parkour (“free running”), in which players shoot over, around and on any obstacles the urban landscape puts in their way. Or it might just be that director Pierre Morel knows how to keep things moving at a rapid clip and avoid longueurs.

In the screenplay fashioned by Besson and Bibi Naceri (actually a pseudonym for actor Larbi Naceri), Belle plays Leito, a straight-arrow resident of the titular district in Paris, an area so dangerous and crime-ridden that it’s actually been walled off from the rest of the city. After he’s stolen and destroyed a million-Euro stash of drugs from crime boss Taha (Naceri), he’s pursued–in the first exhibit of his parkour skill–by the mobster’s henchmen, over rooftops, down stairwells and up-and-down walls. (This and similar set-pieces that occur further on in the picture could be assembled together under the title of “Run, Leito, Run.”) Naturally they fail to catch him, so they snatch his sister–tellingly named Lola (Dany Verissimo)–to draw him to them; but when he rescues her and asks for help from the police, they turn her over to the bad-guys and jail him, and after he takes suitable revenge against a crooked cop he’s sent away to the big house and Lola becomes Taha’s drug-crazed slave.

That’s only the beginning. We’re next introduced to undercover cop Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) who, in an incredibly extended display of gunplay, acrobatics and fisticuffs, brings down another crime boss, after which he’s summoned by the brass for an emergency assignment–to recover a prototype neutron bomb that’s been stolen by Taha and is armed to go off in twenty-four hours. In order to infiltrate District 13 and defuse it before it can be sold or launched against an “important” part of Paris, Damien impersonates a prisoner in order to break out with Leito in the hope that the young man will help him navigate the dangerous suburb. Things don’t go as planned, of course, since Leito’s not fooled; but eventually they decide to work together, Damien to recover the bomb and Leito to rescue his sister. Lots of fights, twists and chases follow, all pumped up not only by the amazing work of both Belle and Raffaelli, but also by the whiplash editing by Frederic Thorval and the hyper-active photography by Manuel Teran, and ending in a seconds-away effort to render the missile harmless. Or is there something else afoot here?

Of course, like all pictures of this sort, “District B13” has its dull spots, when it actually tries to add a touch of humanity to the characters. And its ultimate condemnation of governmental malfeasance (combined with sympathy for the downtrodden, however brutal they might be), while satisfying, has a distinctly pro-forma feel. (It’s also–one regrets to say–far less convincing than it used to be, assuming in the way that “The Three Days of the Condor” or “All the President’s Men” did that the revelation of wrong-doing in high places would result in public outrage. As news of real-life abuse of power in the modern world has demonstrated, though, such revelations nowadays are more likely to be met with a resigned shrug and a permissive attitude.) But overall it’s enjoyable, adrenalin-pumping nonsense–a model of what a video-game movie ought to be, even if it isn’t actually based on one.

In fact, those who actually do make movies from such games should learn from it.