After the biggest deadline of the year is done, I was thoroughly drained. It came to me that being a movie fanatic and feeling bad about the lack of reviews here, it was time for a movie. I went to check the times and to my surprise, Brick Mansions was showing at my suburban (and frankly very francophone) theatre. The fact that Brick Mansions was there and on first week with only one more day listed motivated me to go right away. My friend didn’t want to go so after some errands, I went to check it out. Its the first time in Montreal that I’ve gone to see a movie by myself so now that I’ve done it once, I’ll willingly do it again. Plus, it was the perfect time because of playoff game so there was almost no one at the theatres. I walked into the movie 5 minutes before and I was all by myself. As the previews moved along, 3 couples came in. I honestly wouldn’t have mind being by myself. Imagine, I had a free ticket from my Scene points and I had the whole viewing to myself. Now that would’ve been pretty cool, right? 😉
We’re not here to read about what happened in my movie experience but what I thought. Lets start with a little synopsis, shall we?
Director: Camille Delamarre
Cast: Paul Walker, David Belle, RZA, Gouchy Boy, Catalina Denis, Ayisha Issa, Bruce Ramsay
In 2018, Detroit has now separated the bad into their own little Brick Mansions area where its barricaded from the “able and honest” people. In Brick Mansions, there are no privileges and no benefits. The people there have no public facilities: police, medical, schools. Brick Mansions is run by ex military Tremaine Alexander (RZA). He is a drug lord that runs the area. However, when a Brick Mansions do gooder Lino (David Belle) steals his stash from his top henchman, he seeks him out every way possible to make him pay until he gets him locked up. However, at the same time, Detective Damien Collier (Paul Walker) is assigned to go undercover to retrieve a bomb that was hijacked and accidentally set off. With only 12 hours (and less) to find a way to join forces with Lino to infiltrate Tremaine’s territory, save Lino’s girlfriend Lola (Catalina Denis) and to deactivate the bomb, both Lino and Damien are forced to team up and make it all work out. If not, they will die trying.
I don’t know how many of you reacted to Paul Walker’s sudden death but I was devastated. So much that I did my first marathon for an actor. I got in a few movies that I had never seen on Netflix and postponed another one for this. I didn’t get a chance to see Hours so knowing nothing about this movie, I just knew I had to see it. Plus, all the pictures of the mid air jumping was pretty cool on the poster. What more can I say? To me, Paul Walker was a respectable man and he was part of one of my favorite franchises and a lot of movies he has done are pretty underrated. Sure, they aren’t Oscar winning masterpieces but they always provide the entertainment that I look for. Brick Mansions falls right in that category there and it may possibly be THE most fun outside of the Fast & Furious franchise.
Brick Mansions is a remake of District B13, a french action movie. I’ve never seen the original but through some research for this, I realized that David Belle, who plays Lino, was part of the District B13 franchise. I really like Lino a lot. He was the source of a lot of the crazy and impressive stunts that went on throughout the movie. Plus, alongside Paul Walker’s Damien, they both jived really well together. They had fights together, both against each other and against the same bad guys. The dialogue they had were at times cheesy but I found it funny also. Together, they made this film stronger and more fun. Paul Walker always has the ability to make something like this work really well. This movie gives me a similar feeling to when I saw Takers (review HERE).
There aren’t too many characters in this flick. Its really a simple, straight forward race against time action movie, but we can’t mention the two main guys and not mention our bad guy just a little, right? RZA plays Tremaine Alexander. Right off the bat, our first scene is always in that dark kitchen of his cooking and making metaphors to his grandma’s recipes and whatnot. A part of me wasn’t sure if I was going to take him seriously but at the same time, it gives it a entertaining twist to his “ruthless” character, I guess. I can’t really pinpoint what it is, but I found him convincing enough.
There isn’t much to say about Brick Mansions. If you go all nitpicky and try to find it to be a perfect whatever genre movie, you won’t find much. But, if you sit down, shut your brain off and enjoy it for what it is: an action movie full of cool stunts and cheesy lines, you will have fun with this. Its not a thick storyline but the characters do well enough to make you have a lot of fun with it. I was entertained the whole time and I totally fell in love with Lino and Damien because they were both noble in their own ways, even if you look at the character of our bad guy, Tremaine, he also had his own reasons for doing what he did in Brick Mansions, regardless if it was good or bad. Regardless, I’m sure there will be haters for this one because its nothing complex or whatnot, but I had a lot of fun with it and I felt entertained at the end. Seeing Paul Walker’s last movie also gave it bonus points especially when I felt that everyone did a great job with what they had. Thats what matters, right?
Have you seen Brick Mansions? What did you think of it? Have you seen the original? What do you think of Paul Walker’s career?
Tranquil Dreams 