A safe but serviceable sequel.

The real kick of the material is had when the characters are forced to fly their way out of tight situations, or reduce a team of aggressors to a heaving pile of wounded groans.

Jumps the shark regularly with glee . . .

A competent if flabby rehash of the first film's race-against-time plot and dystopian setting.

The dialogue and storyline are both a little on the clunky side, but the action excels.

The film’s real problem is building momentum from its action set-pieces. Belle’s agility and Raffaelli’s fleet footwork are fine, but the parade of rent-a-thugs toppling like ninepins isn’t very exciting.

An entertaining sequel with a political subtext that doesn't get in the way of the wall-to-wall action.

Light on its feet, but heavy in its brain.

The stunt work is good, the script feeble.

It's muscular, dumb entertainment, edited like gangbusters and with villains who want to blow up the entire Parisian underclass.

The stunts and fights are all the film needs to justify its existence — never mind that the story is comic-book silliness.

When you’ve stopped chortling at the sheer impertinence of it, this sequel emerges as a pretty conventional re-run of the original, boasting impressive stunt fights waged by characters so thin they’d blow away in a light breeze.

It's not hard to be engaged by the sheer energy of the District 13 films and, despite a handful of minor plot gripes, the sequel more than matches its predecessor for eye-popping action and relentless drive.

The reason this wildly improbable, socially clueless drivel is easily the most entertaining film of the week is that it contains three of the most exciting action sequences I've seen in the past ten years.

A Parisian conspiracy thriller of frankly preposterous dimensions.

The expertly choreographed and often preposterous fight sequences are reminiscent of Jackie Chan in his glory days and are the saving grace of an otherwise crude thriller.

Breathless, inspired and hugely enjoyable action.

Entertaining, fast-paced action thriller with some delightfully demented set-pieces.

Luc Besson and pals are back with another crazed action movie that, despite its ludicrous plotting, keeps us entertained with sheer energy and wit. And the central duo is turning into a pretty good movie team.

The fight sequences (choreographed by Raffaelli) are especially creative, with the combatants using any available object, including a priceless Van Gogh painting, to get the job done.

It’s campier than its predecessor, but its gung ho union of black, white, and Asian gangs against reactionaries who’d destroy them is a virtuosic assertion of punky Parisian multiculturalism.

The dialogue and storyline are both a little on the clunky side, but the action excels.

The fight-the-power scenario operates as a rebel fantasy of empowered French multicultural youth, yet it's one that never rises above cartoonishness.

Somewhat underwhelming sequel.

Works only when at full sprint.

Kung fu rebels battle corrupt cops in a futuristic Parisian slum. Satisfying sequel to District B13 from the Luc Besson workshop.

Your time is better spent tracking down a DVD of the original, which was a highlight of a rapidly deteriorating genre.

Pitched cannily at World Beat fans as well as martial-arts zealots, this Luc Besson production aims to please and nails its targets with more speed and style than most of its higher-priced competition.

With a thumping score and whirling cinematography, District 13: Ultimatum delivers two or three awesomely choreographed chase-and-fight-and-chase-and-fight-again sequences. The dialogue (in French, with subtitles) is not this movie's strength, nor should it be.

Awesome, awesome action. Skimpy, skimpy plot.

It’s pleasurable nonsense and another reminder that one of the great pulls of cinema is the spectacle of other bodies in blissful motion.

This time, with Besson scripting / producing and Patrick Alessandrin directing, it amounts to a raucous and colorfully junky helping of seconds.

More of the same, only more. Yet here, “more� means a more needlessly convoluted plot, a more cartoonish parade of ethnic stereotypes, and more leaden political metaphor than viewers can digest.

Let's be honest, this is all about the bang-bang and the bang-bang is done with a wink and a boatload of style.

Is this sequel bad? Not by a long shot. Just disappointing, if you're expecting it to measure up to the original.

When D13: Ultimatum is firing on all cylinders, it's a bad-ass action movie. When it functions as a delivery mechanism for a social message, it's corny as all hell, but still pleasant enough.

So long as it sticks to the stunts, it's fun. Unfortunately, when it delivers its masses-against-the-man message, it stumbles. And that's far too often.

Besson's philosophy of breakneck action and spectacular set pieces guides the brilliant blend of physical stunts and cartoon conception of a walled-in slum on the fringes of a near-future Paris.

the "art of movement" has been replaced by the same old Hollywood histrionics.

District B13 begged for a cash-in sequel, and Besson certainly isn’t above providing one.

Gone is the ballet. What remains is the butt-kicking, a lively but familiar style of martial arts that show our heroes as fit as ever, but maybe not as creative.

The best Parisian action movie of the week is District 13: Ultimatum, a serviceable thriller with a lefty message.

There's little difference between the first and second movies -- both written by Besson -- so the perfunctory story line will feel familiar to fans. But the action, and the head-spinning stunts of those agile lead actors, will never get old.

Approaches politics like an Axe commercial. Like a cocky 14-year-old, it's all bluster when we want grownup charm and menace.

Simply put, if you're wearing a uniform in this movie, you're going to get hammered. And you're going to be too dumb to just draw your pistol and shoot one of the stars.

The plot is ludicrous but one doesn't go to Luc Besson action films for character-driven storytelling; they go for exactly what this film promises and delivers -- frenetic, inspired, grin-inducing action.

The film doesn't drag, exactly - it's hard for a 90 minute film that focuses on a trio of extended martial arts setpieces to ever truly bog down - but it does lose momentum occasionally.

It isn't as slick or clean as its predecessor, [but] the movie manages to move briskly and cheerfully through its running time.

Pleasurable nonsense and another reminder that one of the great pulls of cinema is the spectacle of bodies in blissful motion.

It’s easy to call this film a video action game starring real people, but that “real� part means a lot.

Suffering from fewer of the stunts that made the original film a sensation and an afterthought of a script, District 13: Ultimatum is an auto-pilot shell of its sire.

There’s no reason a conspiracy this outlandish should work twice. But it’s so hilariously within the realm of plausibility that it does.

This is a hot modern martial art. Not only do the shots look convincing, not only are they held long enough to allow us to see an entire action, but Belle in real life does a version of this stuff.

This sequel to the French actioner "District B13" (2004) offers more of what made the original such a sublimely stupid pleasure.

Due in large part to its cultural relevance, this is also one of the few sequels that nearly succeeds in topping the original.