Absolutely brilliant

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

A movie that gets more rating mainly because of the spectacular athletic performance of the stunt-men and actors as well and less for the story.anyway..a great way to spend your day watching a movie like this...i always liked stories with multiple characters and developments and i must say that this is one of the best for me. i haven't seen yet part two..i will soon but won't raise my expectations so i won't feel bad after. a great similarity to another french movie Banieue 13 made me want to see this movie and i'm glad i did. PS: Don't try it at home...and i don't mean just kids :)Well deserved 9 stars for showing us there's no boundary when u want ! Enjoy !

Many of my fellow commentators who were overly critical of Yamakasi miss the point of the film (and in some cases some important details of the plot). The motivation behind this film was to showcase free running/parkour as a new action style Besson had already used similar stunts in Taxi 2 and later developed the idea into the quite palatable action flick Banlieue 13 (District 13B). The story of the film is merely a framework around which the stunt sequences could be moulded. However, it is important to understand some plot points: - The French Police do, unfortunately, have a reputation for being racist. - Parkour is a sub-culture born in the poor suburbs, so the runners are likely to have negative feelings towards the authorities. If they had been depicted as goodie-two-shoes, the story would be unrealistic and the rebellious free runners most likely would not have participated. - French society is elitist and arrogance of the ones on top towards those at the bottom is not unheard of. - The little boy had a heart condition and the exertion of climbing the tree caused a cardiac crisis that made a transplantation the only option to save him. - Trade in human organs is highly illegal in Europe, the doctor is suspect for suggesting it (using these channels could cost him his job, so probably he will get a fat commission out of the deal, or he wouldn't risk it). His callous behaviour brands him as one of the bad guys. - The people robbed by the yamakasi run the illegal organ trade behind the facade of a charity, so basically the yamakasi are stealing from the criminals, so that they can pay them for the illegal donor heart. Thus, in their view, nobody loses except they themselves for risking arrest. - Non Hollywood films often do not explain the blatantly obvious.

The YAMAKASI are a bunch of kids who practise what is variously known as Parkour and Free Running, a sort of sport/art/philosophy involving the development of skills for the traversal of urban environments in interesting ways (http://www.parkour.com/).YAMAKASI the film is a Luc Besson production that basically provides a vehicle for 7 of these kids to show their stuff, in the pretence of helping a young kid who needs a heart transplant. It actually feels rather like a kids film, with larger than life characters (a bit of a keystone cops thing going on) and a message about being a bit rebellious but in a good way, or something.The group are real life practitioners of Parkour, not professional actors - which kind of shows, though not in a particularly bad way - they're not wooden, but don't exactly express deep or complicated emotions.Given that the film is basically a vehicle for Parkour, it's somewhat disappointing that not all that much of it is shown. There's some building scaling which is impressive but not particularly cinematic, then a bunch of antics where very little "free running" is shown - there are just a couple of scenes which show the potential the film could have had, towards the end. That potential has recently been realised much more dramatically in the film BANLIEUE 13, where one of the founders of Parkour is teamed up with martial artist Cyril Raffaelli for some truly original and sometimes incredible action sequences which show how Parkour could really be the foundation of a whole new action style. It's a shame that YAMAKASI, for whatever reason, didn't seem to know what to do with it. I'm hoping that the semi-sequel LES FILS DU VENT will put the group's talents to better use.

The action was fun to see, the stunts were interesting, especially after reading that they were supposed to be real... but it's a movie not really made for thinking people, since there are terrible flaws in the plot that renders the whole process ridiculous and casts a shadow on the hero's self righteous deeds.Why is everyone (audience included) expected to blame the doctor for the price of the new heart! The movie attempts to show it as his fault! Or the fault of his social class! That's rediculous. He is simply stating the market price of the donor heart. It's probably being sold on the black market anyway, since I believe there are laws against such organ trading. It's then up to those RESPONSIBLE (and involved) to come up with the cash, if they want the transaction to go through. He does not make up this price, he is simply stating how much the people have to pay. - Think about it. What would happen if every doctor was made (forced / coerced) to pay the bill for patients requiring treatment? The price he quotes is the price that must be payed by those RESPONSIBLE for the boy's condition. Among those responsible were the terrible building climbing role models the boy was imitating in the first place. Which is why they got involved, right?Also, all this intimidation and threats made to others is very much against the, apparently very superficial, chivalrous code that these climbers are supposed to embrace. They are made to appear hypocrites and their eventual deeds lower them below the status of the lower class, to the status of thieves, extortionists, and criminals. Which, I believe the film was not intended to do. What great role models they became to save the boy! Do they still want him to grow up to be just like them? Apparently.Still there were some good suspense parts, like when they were stuck in the house and had to escape from the roof. One was left wondering how they were going to pull that off. Hopefully they didn't give too many burglars ideas. We don't need any more of that, thanks.Similar movies include: Robin Hood and the Pink Panther, although these are both much more heroic thieves than the Yamakasi. Perhaps Kamakasi would have been a better name, given the film's great number of negative reviews.