Bill O’Byrne’s Bargain Bin Blues: Brick Mansions

Brick Mansions | Value for money: $$

• Directed by Camille Delamarre.
• Written by Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen, Bibi Naceri.
• Starring Paul Walker, David Belle, Catalina Denis, RZA.

PHIL vs BILL
The late Paul Walker’s last completed movie was this re-make of the French thriller, District B13. It’s virtually the same story, only without subtitles, down to the recruitment of the original’s David Belle as the ex-convict who’s teamed with Walker’s undercover cop to infiltrate a futuristic, walled-off gangland ghetto in Detroit – only to discover the real bad guys are on their side. The conspiracy plotting’s routine but the Parkour stunts remain just as breathtaking. The handful of brief, perfunctory extras wasn’t worth including. — Phil Wakefield.

Brick Mansions is a tale of redemption. And civic renewal. And parkour. A lot of parkour. Which is the Dungeons and Dragons of stunt work, but it certainly brightens up Brick Mansions which is a big, stupid movie that is only fitfully fun.

There are two plot lines. One is Brick Mansions resident David Belle’s attempts to retrieve his girlfriend (Catalina Denis) from the evil clutches of drug kingpin RZA (usually heading the Wu -Tang Clan, like I’d know) who is pretty much king of BM, the name given to the roughest housing project in Detroit.

The city’s response to this hive of scum and villainy has been to put up very big walls and put roadblocks on the residents/inmates who seemingly spend their days selling drugs to each other when they’re not killing folks

So sort of Escape from New York, but being Detroit it has to be a bit Robocopy so Paul Walker is there as the Good Cop to retrieve a neutron bomb using Belle as his guide to Brick Mansions.

It was Walker’s last completed movie before the poor bastard became Flambé a la Porsche and it’s a shame they never let his natural charm come across more. There is a couple of “making of” specials where he talks about having fun on the film and driving fast cars (Stay away from the goddam Porsche, Mr Walker!!!) and he has a natural charm. This gets lost in the movie where he’s a bit of a stiff sod and the Tango & Cash sort of chemistry that had to work with Belle didn’t show up.

That’s possibly because first-time director Camille Delamarre is mainly an editor, having worked on Transporter 3 and Taken 2. So maybe he needed to start his directing career with something with a numeral in it to make him feel comfortable.

Paul Walker, David Belle and RZA cooking up a gumbo of crap in Brick Mansions.

Did I mention the parkour was good? Belle was one of the founders of it, having taken some of his father’s principles and developed the sport in France.

He apparently used it to great effect in District 13, the original French movie, aka Banlieue 13 that this is based on. (I say apparently as I haven’t seen it but Rotten Tomatoes gave it 80%).

Catalina Denis and Ayisha Issa. I know, I thought it was early Kubrick too.

It’s also bitsy … things happen, they happen again, and then they happen again for no great reason that I could make sense of.

There are some nice mano a mano fight sequences, the bad guys have a lot of guns they can’t seem to aim properly, and the two female leads have a couple of mean fights in skimpy clothing, so at least there’s some high art there for the intellectuals.

The ending is outrageously stupid, but it does show that when you take down barriers in a society people will immediately get rid of their firearms and drugs to indulge in a beautiful outbreak of civic renewal, which is a message we can all take on board.

So alas, too preposterous to take seriously, and not fun enough to enjoy. A few beers and some friends might make it worth doing a running rip commentary on it to enhance the experience.

For a better action experience, get The Raid and then The Raid 2. You will thank me. No, really, you will.

A gal, a neutron bomb and a Russian surface to air missile. Ordinarily a recipe for an above average movie.