BRICK MANSIONS DVD (2014)
SYNOPSIS: In a dystopian Detroit, abandoned brick mansions left from better times now house only the most dangerous criminals. Unable to control the crime, the police constructed a colossal containment wall around this area to protect the rest of the city. For undercover cop Damien Collier (Paul Walker) every day is a battle against corruption. For Lino (David Belle), every day is a fight to live an honest life. Their paths never should have crossed, but when drug kingpin, Tremaine (RZA) kidnaps Lino's girlfriend, Damien reluctantly accepts the help of the fearless ex-convict, and together they must stop a sinister plot to devastate the entire city. With stylized action featuring thrilling Parkour stunts (David Belle is the co-founder of this physical training discipline), Brick Mansions puts an entertaining twist on the action genre.
MOVIE REVIEW:
The remake of the French actioner, District 13 comes a decade too late to catch on the parkour hype. Brick Mansions will forever be remembered as Paul Walker’s last completed screen work before his tragic passing in November 2013 and nothing else.
The founder of Parkour David Belle reprises his role from the original, a man named Lino who teamed up with an undercover cop, Damien (Paul Walker) to stop a sinister plot from being carried out by drug kingpin Tremaine (RZA) in dystopian Detroit.
The plot once again written and perhaps reassembled for the English version by Luc Besson is poorly scripted and generic that what manages to salvage the movie from being a dumpster flick is the handful of decent action sequences.
Belle still has the agility to vault from rooftop to rooftop and Walker does a competent job catching up with his co-star as the duo flipped out a number of cars and plenty of Tremaine’s henchmen along the way. The moment when Belle and Walker stops their crazy stunts and RZA starts to blabber about his evil plans, you know it’s time for a bathroom break until Belle jumps out of the window or something.
It’s kind of weird to see first time helmer Camille Delamarre who has worked as an editor for Europa employed so much quick cuts and camera tricks in the entire movie since Belle requires none of that. Delamarre should have just let Belle does his old school job of kicking asses without the aid of CG and wire.
At the very minimum, Brick Mansions is very much a decent action movie for Walker fans though the ending involving some complex narrative about social intones, political agenda which only turned up to be a face palm. This is a highly flawed movie but rest assured if you are here purely for the presence of Walker and Belle, you won’t be disappointed.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Beyond the Brick Mansions consists of six brief making of features, mostly interviews with Walker, Belle and RZA and some behind-the-scenes footages. Parkour Fury Trailer is just a promo reel.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Brick Mansions offers a substantially well-transferred visual palette and the audio comes with generally well mixed sound effects.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
