Yamakasi - Les Samourais du Temps Modernes is a step down the evolutionary ladder for Luc Besson's production company. Produced but not directed by Besson, who fired the original director, it's about a gang of extreme sports street kids who climb buildings for fun. When a hero-worshipping kid has a heart attack imitating them by climbing a very, very, very, very small tree, to show what socially responsible blokes they are they decide to get the $500,000 he needs for a heart transplant by robbing the doctors. O-kay... They then show how on-message they are by making up the shortfall by forcing the hospital doctor in charge of the care to pay it himself by threatening to kill him. So that's all right, then.
Cue lots of ingenious robberies, right? Er, no. Cue not much at all. One fun scene dodging a couple of guard dogs and one clearly faked rooftop jump shot from restricted angles and some limp jokes is really all. Forgetting the dodgy morality (it's okay to steal from doctors because they're all rich scum anyway!), this is weak stuff. Stylishly shot but like most Besson films light on character, plot and most of all action - not a lot happens in its 85 mins and there are really very, very few stunts. The main point of interest is that almost all of the main characters aren't white for a change - black, Arab and Chinese origins abound. But at the end of the day this has no more edge than BMX Bandits or an average episode of Byker Grove or even (according to my dad) an old show called The Double Deckers that The Children's' Film Foundation used to churn out.
Cue lots of ingenious robberies, right? Er, no. Cue not much at all. One fun scene dodging a couple of guard dogs and one clearly faked rooftop jump shot from restricted angles and some limp jokes is really all. Forgetting the dodgy morality (it's okay to steal from doctors because they're all rich scum anyway!), this is weak stuff. Stylishly shot but like most Besson films light on character, plot and most of all action - not a lot happens in its 85 mins and there are really very, very few stunts. The main point of interest is that almost all of the main characters aren't white for a change - black, Arab and Chinese origins abound. But at the end of the day this has no more edge than BMX Bandits or an average episode of Byker Grove or even (according to my dad) an old show called The Double Deckers that The Children's' Film Foundation used to churn out.