Parkour has become the rage these days. It's been featured on TV shows and movies like CASINO ROYALE and has even found a home in commercials. For those unaware, parkour is "...the activity or sport of moving rapidly through an area, typically in an urban environment, negotiating obstacles by running, jumping and climbing...". If you've seen someone running and jumping through things or flipping off of walls at a run, you've seen parkour.
Perhaps the best film to use parkour has been DISTRICT B13
which had people flying at tremendous speeds through a broken down district in
France in the near future. That movie was an amazing film to see and displayed
the sport at its best. Now a new movie has been released trying to duplicate
that success but it falls a bit short, no pun intended.
Seventeen year old Daniel is on the run with his father
non-stop. The duo rob places to get by and support themselves, Daniel using his
skills at parkour to escape the fastest police around. One day Daniels father
Mike (Adrian Pasdar) decides they've run long enough. It seems that years ago
Mike married a woman whose brother Jeremiah (Eric Roberts) was unhappy with her
choice. When she died after being shot and giving birth to Daniel, Jeremiah
swore to make Mike pay. What he didn't know was that Daniel was born.
So Mike and Daniel return to the tough streets of New York
with Mike hoping to make amends with Jeremiah. Daniel goes to school and gets
caught up with another teen that just happens to be into parkour as well. While
he disguises his abilities, Daniel falls for his friend's sister. All of this
comes to a head later when the bad guys kidnap her and Jeremiah eventually
captures Mike as well. Only Daniel can save the day but not before it's
revealed that Mike's old friend and Jeremiah's right hand Luke had more to do
with the whole story than first believed.
The movie here is well intentioned but falls short of its
goal. The production values are on the lower end but you get the feeling
everyone involved had higher hopes than what turned out. You have to give them
credit for that. The parkour on display seems incredibly basic. It's sort of
like comparing the high wire stunts in Chinese made martial arts films to the
first karate displays offered in American made movies in the sixties. William
Moseley as Daniel does his best but it's apparent he was hired for his parkour
skills and not his acting ability. That said, he does his best and may turn out
to do better work in the future; there is hope.
On the whole this movie is entertaining in an ELECTRIC
BOOGALOO sort of way but not one that I'd add to my shelf. Still, if you had
little else to choose from at your rental outlet or chance to see it on Netflix
it provides a decent night's entertainment. Just go in knowing what to expect.
Let's hope all involved progress from here.
Click here to order.
No comments:
Post a Comment