District 13—a French sci-fi film about a multicultural Parisian ghetto and the daring young men who will fight to save it—was a shockingly good potboiler. It's remembered as the film that popularized parkour (and seriously: Leave it to the French to turn running away into a martial art), and it was a huge international box-office success. And because producer/writer Luc Besson never conceived of a sequel he didn't like (see also: Transporter 3), the original District 13 gets a second installment.

It's a surprisingly fun ride for the most part. Police captain Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli, now officially the coolest bald man on the planet) and street-smart 13 denizen Leito (David Belle, wearing what appears to be a midnight black hedgehog on his head) have to reteam to save the district from an evil developer who wants to demolish the whole ghetto and gentrify it from the ground up. There's less out-and-out parkour this time around, but just as much stylized ass-kicking. Besson makes his usual statements about gender, sexuality, and the modern action star—one of the leads is shown to be remarkably comfortable with the idea of crossdressing—and his self-aware action flourishes, like a Hispanic gang leader named Little Montana who loves guns and speaks in a French approximation of Al Pacino's Scarface accent, are always a nice touch.

But the minute the cast ditches 13 to attack the seat of French government, the urban charm of the first film is left way behind, and the first film's right-on social commentary is basically dropped because it gets in the way of the plot. By the time things wrap up in an overly talky, not-nearly-ass-kicking-enough climactic scene, you'll barely have any idea what the fuck is going on. Ultimatum won't sully your fond memories of the first 13, but it's not a worthy sequel, either.