District 13: Ultimatum, a hopped-up, hammy sequel to the 2004 urban French action romp, is, like its predecessor, rife with parkour stunts - parkour being a daunting discipline that involves running, jumping, rolling, leaping, sliding, and sidling over, around, and along various large obstacles and altitudinous edifices. Roof-hopping, check. Banister-leaping, mais, oui.
The film, scripted by this week's omnipresent Luc Besson (see From Paris With Love), is also, in its ubiquitous Gallic way, a throwback to '70s blaxploitation fare: The world of District 13 (or Banlieue 13 in its original) is a near-future nightmare of social unrest where the nonwhite minorities - the French Africans, the Arabs, the Asians - have been relegated to towering concrete apartment complexes on the fringes of the city. The police patrol warily and heavily armed, and although nobody actually says "the Man," it is the Man - in the guise of the government, the cops, and military - that is sticking it to this colorful, clamorous community.