saw: banlieue 13
There's some top-notch French chop-sockey in the opening scenes of this cheapie actioner—until the Luc Besson-scribed story, such as it is, gets mired in preachy civics and a tortured plot that plays out like a partially rendered video game. The rest, mercifully eighty minutes or so in toto, is an exercise in diminished returns and indifferent direction. But that opening sequence would make a great PS3 cut-scene. Grade: C+