Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This movie is simply terrible. It glorifies smalltime thugs, who break into houses, steal works of art, and threaten a doctor with violence.As the morons they are, they insult one of the people they are stealing from, for not listening to the loud, obnoxious and clichéd rap music that they like.Luc Besson tries to tell the story of a group of youth down on their luck, who work together to help someone, but the reality is really different, and this is what makes me uncomfortable. They are not guardian angels, they're just thugs, who use threats to get what they want.

Let me start this saying that I consider Luc Besson a very creative person. Probably he is not the best writer, he may not even be a good one, but he always comes up with the most original ideas in his scripts. And I admire him for that.With that said, I must said that I had mixed feelings when I was watching "Yamakasi"; for one part, I was so amazed by the complex stunts and the beautiful action scenes shot in an old school way, everything beautifully choreographed, but, on the other hand, the dramatic scenes and the plot were so weak that I wonder how a script written by three people could be so plain and undeveloped.The core plot is very simple, the Yamaksi are a gang of 7 guys whose love for adrenaline has taken them to create the extreme sport of climbing buildings as mountains and practically defy gravity in their acrobatic adventures; one day a kid tries to imitate them, but his heart condition makes him faint and suddenly he needs a heart transplant. The problem is, that the organ can only be get by illegal ways, so it will cost a lot of money that his family can't pay. The Yamakasi, feeling guilty, decide to steal from the rich to gather the sum needed for the transplant. they only have 6 hours to get the money and they will use all of their skills to make it.The problem with the plot, is that it is all we get, it is just a mere excuse to show the Yamakasi skills and to make fun of the French police. I must say again that I was impressed by the amazing stunts, but I would have liked something to identify with the characters.The script's problem is not the story, as many people believe, because I found it very original. In my opinion, the problem with the movie is that we have very few development of the 7 heroes, we barely know them so it is very hard to feel empathy towards them. The Yamakasi end up as 2-dimensional heroes with very limited motivations. It would be great if at least 10 minutes of the movie had been spent in getting to know them, but the only thing we know is their nickname and their "ability".That would be my only complain, because it seriously hurt the film. As result of the undeveloped characters, there is very few the actors can do. Nevertheless, Maher Kamoun did a remarkable job, although it is probably because his character, Vincent, is the only one who gets a complete development; as a police officer who is a cousin of one of the Yamakasi, he has to struggle between his responsibility as officer and his responsibility with his family.Something that is also worth noticing, is that our 7 (9 if we count Vincent and their friend Michelin) heroes show a lot of ethnic diversity that reflects the society in modern day France. To have a team of Arabs, Africans and French as heroes was something way different from what we are used to see.In the end, "Yamakasi - Les Samouraïs des Temps Modernes" is an average but entertaining film that, while certainly could have been a lot better, at least supplies good entertainment with a big dose of adrenaline. 6/10

Not a bad movie, but it had some glaring holes. The ending was absolutely ridiculous - "we all tell the same story, we all get off scott free!". Please! The couple of action sequences were cool, but way too choppy in the editing - I couldn't tell at all if the guys were actually doing the stunt or if it was just skillfully edited to look like they did. If this is an action film they need to show more of the uncut action to legitimize the stunts. As a side note, interesting comments from tseepra, but there is a new commercial on TV that kind of pokes a hole in the non-media driven motivation of the parkour originators. The commercial is for the new Toyota Scion, and it presents the Scion against "Freerunners." After a series of stunts, the end of the commercial says "Freerunning by Seb and Jerome." Guess they needed the money?

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.