District 13 is a 2004 French martial arts film re-released in dubbed English in 2006. They waste no time getting to business, and what is most engaging about this movie is how much adrenaline it provokes without the use of special effects or wires. A druglord has an enemy's sister, as well as a nuclear weapon he may blow up the French slums with, thus drawing both Damien (a cop who can diffuse the bomb) and Leito (a slum-dwelling avenger who seeks his sister) together. The main characters use parkour, a french technique that was invented by one of the main characters (David Belle, Leito), which emphasizes maximum efficiency in manipulating your environment with the use of the human body. There is a lot of jumping, flipping and spinning in this technique, for example in the popular urban ninja video on youtube. They used a variety of martial arts, as the cop was a self-professed kickboxer, and the druglord watches a famous UFC fight at one point in the movie. The movie was also politically clairvoyant, as the French attitudes towards the slums of Paris showed up in the media a year later when riots broke out due to the hopelessness of the ignored areas. But still, District 13 was a 90-minute adrenaline-rush, that is fitting for any martial-arts movie-fan.
The Protector
Another installment by Tony Jaa, who goes to Australia to protect his companion elephant, a sacred animal in Thai culture, which has been kidnapped by some crooked business people. Some of the plot, acting, and music were silly, but there is one reason to watch this movie, and that is to watch Tony Jaa kick some ass. He is a lot more aggressive and dominant than in Ong-Bak, and there were some long and daunting fight sequences.
The Golden Compass
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