If you see “Brick Mansions,” remove logic from your list of expectations. You might give this film a chance for its action. Hopefully, the poster doesn’t convince you to see this, because it’s kind-of awful. Instead of putting the poster on a side of a building, the poster is literally a picture of the three actors on a side of a building! That’s insanity!
You might give this a chance to watch Paul Walker in his final completed film. He’s adequate here – silly at times, particularly when he’s warring with co-star David Belle over who gets to take a stolen van; or when he’s unconvincingly saying “Back off. Back off.” The writing is partly to blame, too. Walker was getting stronger as an actor, being tolerable and convincing as his character – and only poor once or twice in a film. It’s a shame that we won’t ever be able to see him be truly and consistently great. He does take to the stunt-work of parkour like a champ and his training shines through, in what is easily his most physically demanding role to date. This film surely does not do for parkour what “The Raid: Redemption” did for the Indonesian martial arts style of pencak silat. That’s a blurb that would probably suit the original “District B13,” upon which “Brick Mansions” is based. Now that the “Raid” is being mentioned, this is sort-of like a dumb version of it, just with a lot less blood because its PG-13 rating holds it back.
David Belle’s involvement helps the action of the film, because he’s considered the founding father of parkour, an instinctive acrobatic style where you can jump off of any surface or object. It’sawesome to watch these guys jump around like grasshoppers over people, from building to building and wall to wall. The action is just great, if repetitive – but this is where this film succeeds the most. The first scene where David Belle is prominently featured is a phenomenal action sequence. First-time director Camille Delamarre directs the action well, but he uses slow motion to a fault. The over-utilization of it somehow gives the film a sort-of visual flair in the likes of Gareth Evans’ style, director of “The Raid: Redemption” and “The Raid 2.” Delamarre isn’t nearly as successful directing the dialogue exchanges, because it’s all a bit silly – but that is screenwriter Luc Besson’s fault.
The silliness in “Brick Mansions” comes from a lack of logic, and the dialogue of the villainous Tremaine (RZA). He says things like “Tremaine ain’t anxious, he causes anxious,” and “C’est la vie!” which shows us that this connoisseur knows French. (It means, “That’s life” in French, by the way.) His motivations aren’t clear, and he’s generic – but he explains at one point that he’s a “politician,” but it must be assumed that he’s speaking of being a politics of all things drugs. RZA seems to be a good artist and great composer (most notably for “Kill Bill: Vol. 1”), but based on his work in this film, his acting ability is lacking; but then again, he can’t be the greatest actor in a role like this.
Paul Walker’s character of Damien, an undercover cop, has a bone to pick with Tremaine because his father was killed in a drug raid. That’s his motivation to take the baddie down when the Mayor asks him to go in to the rundown ‘Brick Mansions’ to disarm a nuclear weapon. ‘Brick Mansions’ is a walled-off section of 2018 Detroit that was designed to keep the rampant crime of the city in one small area. Hospitals, police stations, and schools are shut down in this sector of Detroit. Damien teams up with Lino, the same character (named Leito) David Belle portrayed in the original French film called “District B13.” He’s okay, and it’s a fine role for him to be introduced to the North American public. He does give off an impression that he’s trying hard to hide his accent – which is distracting. He does a better American accent than Gerard Butler, but I’m curious as to why everyone knows the character is French. He sounds pretty American to me. It’s just a little funny.
Lino and Damien are the only characters you’ll care about because they have clear motivations that, while generic, are mildly well written. One character you won’t care about is one called Rayzah, who is largely the sex appeal of the film. Her distinct, over-the-top attraction to Lino’s ex-girlfriend Lola (Catalina Denis) makes the film have an out-of-place perversion about it. The poor writing of the film is its biggest flaw.
It might sound like I’m giving this film a hard time, but honestly, it’s entertaining. Even when the action isn’t happening, you might be laughing your ass off because the dialogue is so dang silly. If you can get past the silliness of it all, this is a fun time at the movies – and it’ll make a great rental for a dumb movie that you just want to pop in the Blu-Ray player and sit back and have a drink and a lot of laughs with your buddies. (If you can’t get past silliness in a film, just avoid this like the plague.) This is hilarious in the most unintentional ways, and will make a great dumb-movie double feature with “3 Days to Kill.” I’m not sure if Dumb Easy Watching was Luc Besson’s intention, but eh, “C’est la vie!”
– by Daniel Prinn
