I’ve mentioned in the past that I thought the parkour chase scene in Casino Royale felt a bit forced and out of place, but I’m not necessarily against people trying to incorporate parkour into movies. In fact, the first place that I saw parkour used really well was in the French action film Banlieue 13 (District B13), and it totally blew me away. The movie was produced and written by Luc Besson and featured parkour co-creator David Belle in one of the lead roles, along with martial artist/stuntman Cyril Raffaelli. The movie was successful enough to spawn a sequel, and now we have the first teaser trailer for that sequel: Banlieue 13 Ultimatum. (Gee, do you think Bourne has had an influence on the action genre over the past 5 years?)

The dialogue in this trailer is all in French (without subtitles), but thankfully there’s not much talking to sit through — just plenty of running, fighting, and exploding. Much like its predecessor, it looks like the sequel won’t be taking itself too seriously, which is totally fine by me. Belle and Raffaelli will return, although director Pierre Morel will not (he recently directed Taken, and another upcoming Besson flick called From Paris with Love). Patrick Alessandrin (Mean Spirit, August 15th) will take his place. Either way, I’ll be checking this flick out the first chance I get. Banlieue 13 Ultimatum hits theatres in France on February 18th, 2009, and hopefully in North America later in the year. Check out the teaser trailer below.