Papa Vinyard here, now here's a little somethin' for ya...
This second trailer for Camille Dellamarre's DISTRICT B13 remake, BRICK MANSIONS, distinguishes it from the first trailer by focusing squarely on Paul Walker's character and following the recent trailer trend of putting a really cool cover of a famous song behind the action (in this case, "Stand By Me"). There's a ton of action and stuntwork on display here, some of it directly lifted from Pierre Morel's original (also written by Luc Besson), some of it totally unique to this adaptation.
While I get why putting Walker's face front-and-center was a tempting marketing tactic, he's not only less-trained in the actual art of free-running than his co-star, but he's also playing the less-interesting character from the original film (there's a reason they kept David Belle onboard and not Cyril Raffaelli). Thankfully, it doesn't come off as cashing in on his untimely demise; he's the biggest name in the film, with a billion-dollar franchise under his belt, and I reckon they would've focused squarely on him anyway. Plus, he looks like he made an admirable effort in holding his own against the physical dynamo that is his co-lead.
As in the first film, the biggest impact of this trailer comes from Belle's gravity-defying parkour stunts. I could watch that dude jump and run his way past bad guys all day.
I was very skeptical about a U.S. remake of DISTRICT B13 (which more American audiences have to check out regardless of how this turns out), but the energy and daunting stunts have convinced me to check it out when it pops up in theaters next month. So I guess you can count this trailer as a success, 'cause it got my jaded ass interested.
What about you guys? Should they have just let this be, or does this actually look like a kick-ass good time at the movies?
BRICK MANSIONS free-runs across the nation on April 25th.
-Vincent Kim-Zahedi
”Papa Vinyard”
vincentzahedi@gmail.com
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