Parkour showcase, stylish, mindless and fun
Jamie Kendall | Tucson Arizona | 06/18/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I decided early into this dvd that it wasn't a movie so much as it was the audition tape for an entire sport. One of the characters easily summarizes this early in the film by commenting on how excited he is to be promoting his sport, to "show people what they can do."
This movie does an exemplary job of showing people what these kids can do; and they can do some amazing things. Here is a series of really cool stunts, glued together with a hasty plot. Ignore the story- an old chinese man in ghost form guides our heroes on the path to being peaceful warriors, even the ones he isn't related to. What we're looking at here is the action, which more than makes up for our time.
I would recommend this movie to people interested in finding out more about parkour or people who like it enough to want to see some stylish examples of it. Since most of us tend to be action fans, there's plenty of fun fight choreography to watch as well.
As I've mentioned, this movie seemed, to me, to be an audition tape for parkour, or 'free-running', the art of movement. I hope it does well in that regard- parkour is a fascinating development of urban culture, and I'm excited to see what it can do, for stunts and filmmaking, for martial arts, for sports. People really can do some amazing things just with the bodies they were born with. I submit "The Great Challenge' to back up this declaration. Try it and see what I mean."
Could be much better if the screenplay was better
JustAForeignReader | Major Earthquake Faultline | 09/14/2006
(3 out of 5 stars)
"what we saw here is a trend that the cool 'district 13' french movie has set up. these urban explorers indeed are amazing, put all the olympic games to shame. but this movie's screenplay really sucks big time, wasted a bunch of cool young men's energy to nowhere. amazing stunts with deadbeat storyline. what a shame."
No FRENCH AUDIO & SPECIAL FEATUES!!!!!
Lawrence Edwards Jr. | Palmdale, CA | 01/26/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Love the movie, but I cant stand it in English, freaking horrible. Do yourself a favor and buy the original DVD, because they lie that its in French when you cant even choose the damn language. Special Featues ha!!!! There is none."