Brick Mansions

I had a theory about this movie, Brick Mansion. I only saw like, half of the trailer once, and didn’t pay much attention to it. Basically looked like some awkward action movie with a lot of parkour, and of course, Paul Walker. Paul Walker, if you say it fast enough, sounds a bit like parkour too. COINCIDENCE? Yes.

Either way, without seeing it, I am pretty sure this movie wasn’t supposed to go to the theaters. It was going to be a made for DVD action movie and just get some sales from that. But you know, because one of the stars died, they could warrant making some more money off of it in theaters.

This picture sums up the whole movie. Fighting, bricks, and parkour.

DETROIT. This movie takes place in Detroit! Because where else would there be crime in the US? Like RoboCop, it takes place in the future, but unlike RoboCop it takes place in only 2018. So, we got only a few years before it happens I guess.

Basically, there is a housing unit that they made that became full of crime and corrupt. They called it the Brick Mansions unit. Eventually, they put up a wall around it with check points, keeping them in and most people out. They got rid of the police force, schools, hospitals everything, and that area of Detroit became a war zone.

Lino (David Belle), our parkour expert, is a good guy who wants to get all of the crime out of his home, one kilo of drugs at a time. He has a lot of enemies. Damien (Paul Walker), is a cop who is set to end all of the corruption out of Brick Mansions too. They have the same goal. Taking out Tremaine (RZA), one of the bigger drug leaders of the city.

And also he has gained a bomb and plans to use it if he doesn’t get paid. Huh, alright. Got a new real issue to deal with it looks like.

Gouchy Boy and Ayisha Issa play head lackies and Catalina Denis is the lady friend of Lino.

This picture tells absolutely nothing about the movie.

Well, unfortunately this movie went exactly as I thought it would go. Far too unoriginal and far too obvious. From the first scenes, you can plot out the rest of the film. Not always an issue, but when they are attempting to keep it as some what of a secret and a mystery over what people are doing, then it becomes pointless. Plot twists end up having no impact and we are left feeling bored.

It did have some cool action scenes, but not a lot. Mostly it was just fun to watch David Belle run around everywhere and escape and kick some faces in while doing it. This is basically just a mindless action movie with a lame plot unfortunately.

The beginning parkour scene was very interesting, but what ruined it for me was how the enemy with a very small force ended up always appearing before our hero. The one who was really good at escaping and leaped from building to building. But always a bad guy in his way? Are they secretly better at parkour and that explains why it was impossble to get away? Fuck that shit. Just attack with more enemies so then it is at least a bit more plausible.

Found out during the credits that Luc Beeson was involved. That is a bit odd minus the Lino character. Until I figured out that this is basically a secret American remake of a film he did 10 years ago called District B13. Man. Fuck that shit.