Brick Mansions (2014)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Highly Overrated But Still Good

best movie i've ever seen.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

This English-language remake of the excellent DISTRICT 13 was once again made by the French, albeit shot in Canada this time around. It's pretty much a scene-for-scene remake of the original, although inevitably not as good for reasons which we shall come to. It's only as the running time goes on that crucial differences to the original come to light and unfortunately they're not improvements.First, let's get the good stuff listed. This is a short, snappy, action thriller, with plenty of shoot-outs and fight scenes to recommend it. The framing is often good and there's a fine sense of setting in the grubby, run-down locations. One of the highlights is the return of David Belle, playing the same character as he did in the original; it's just an annoyance that they decided to dub him rather than have him use his French accented English.Paul Walker is an odd but obvious choice for Cyril Raffaelli's character in the original, but he's no martial artist so the martial arts fights have been replaced by fist fights and a greater emphasis on car chases. Catalina Denis and Ayisha Issa are the requisite scantily-clad women who hang around to show off their bodies and little more is required of them than that.The problems are slight at first but begin to mount up as the narrative progresses. First off, the editing is horrendous. The early Parkour scenes are ruined by the refusal to shoot the stunts in single, fluid takes; there's always a dodgy edit halfway through, cutting to a different angle and lessening the impact. Sometimes one of Belle's jumps has three or four edits in it which ruins the whole flow of the thing. BRICK MANSIONS does a lot right, but it gets this crucial editing oh so wrong. I remember in the old days of Jackie Chan's 1980s movies that they sometimes wanted to capture a stunt from different angles, so they would just replay it, which was a much better way of doing it.The second problem is RZA, playing the drug dealer villain of the piece. RZA is one of those guys who really loves himself and the film-makers seem to love him too, so there's an unbelievable twist at the end which has to be seen to be believed. The ending is frankly laughable in this respect, and a far cry from the power of the original movie. It's the epitome of sanitised, PG-13 entertainment, and I could cry. At least the rest of the film is in the right spirit, so it's only the ending where it falls apart.

I liked both District B13 and District 13: Ultimatum and watched this for David Belle but I had no idea that it was an American remake.While this isn't as good as the two previously mentioned films, it's still a good watch.David Belle outshines Paul Walker, who is pretty much playing the same role as he does in most of his movies – not that he does it badly!In one fight scene where Paul Walker is fighting three bad guys in the Brick Mansions, you can clearly see two of them standing off to the side (in what I'm assuming probably wasn't supposed to be seen) waiting until Paul and the other guy finish their fight before the join in.This movie also happens to have the typical douche-bag bad guy with the impeccable fashion sense with all the big, gold jewellery.An enjoyable watch, a movie you can turn your brain off and sit back and relax; worth at least one viewing, maybe more.

Brick Mansions (2014): Dir: Camille Delamarre / Cast: Paul Walker, David Belle, RZA, Catalina Denis, Robert Maillet: Another pathetic action film filled with spectacular yet unbelievable stunts. This film regards isolation both physically and emotionally. This is unfortunately Paul Walker's final film before his unfortunate death. He plays an uncover cop who enters this walled off area where urban criminals seem to populate. He is paired up with an ex-convict, played by David Belle whose girlfriend is held hostage there. Apparently there is a missile aimed at the city as a statement from those in Brick Mansions. Walker and Belle spend much time beating the crap out of each other before hugging it out and becoming the buddies we predict them to become. They team up and nearly get their asses handed to them by some big massive henchmen whom they kill by smashing a cement block over his head. Director Camille Delamarre presents action to the unbelievable odds that action fans will dig. Non genre fans will find this tripe to be the bullshit that it is. Walker basically recites most of what he's already done, and Belle does high flying stunts like a human elastic band. RZA plays a drug kingpin barking orders while chopping up peppers for a stew. Catalina Denis plays Belle's sassy girlfriend who is eventually chained to the missile. It is unfortunate that this is Walker's final film appearance seeing that it is so pathetic. This is all pointless and contrived storytelling promoting over the top violence. Frankly, every copy of this film should be there when the brick walls crumble. Score: 3 / 10

If not compared to the original french movie DISTRICT 13, BRICK MANSIONS is a decent and highly entertaining action flick on it's own. If compared to DISTRICT B13 it's not as good but not as bad as people have been saying.This version's biggest problem mainly resides in it's casting. Paul Walker as Damien is actually okay, his only drawback is he doesn't exactly pull off the kind of moves Cyril Raffaelli does in his fight scenes. Which is something I don't consider one of the films major issues. In the case of the lead bad guy I'm pretty sure they could've found someone better than RZA to play the role. The problem with RZA is that he always looks like he's sleepwalks through every role I saw him play from the one in THE MAN WITH THE IRON FIST to G.I JOE RETALIATION, and he sometimes sounds like he doesn't speak properly as if he always has a cold.All in all, aside from the flaws BRICK MANSIONS is a decent action flick if not compared to the original french film. Although in all honesty I do prefer DISTRICT B13 as well as it's sequel.