Brick Mansions
1.5/4
Starring: Paul Walker, David Belle, RZA, Catalina Denis, Ayisha Denis, Bruce Ramsay
Rated PG-13 for Frenetic Gunplay, Violence and Action Throughout, Language, Sexual Menace and Drug Material
I almost didn't see this movie. Paul Walker was favorite screen star, and I had a huge crush on him. So when I heard of his death last year, I was devastated. I feared that it would be too painful. But I saw it anyway, and unfortunately, it's pretty lame.
Few things are worse than bad action movies, and "Brick Mansions" is one of them. The film is constantly moving, but there's no point to it all. I didn't care about the plot (which is very lame), and it takes itself far too seriously.
In 2018, Detroit is a war zone. The worst part of town is Brick Mansions, a housing project that is a cross between Cabrini-Green and Estonia as portrayed in "Lilya-4-Ever." The mayor wants to tear it all down and rebuild, but the question remains about what to do with all the people living there. Then a neutron bomb is stolen by Tremaine (RZA), Brick Mansions' crime lord. The mayor sends in a local detective named Damien (Walker) to find it and disable it, and he's paired up with a cop killer named Lino (Belle), whose girlfriend is held captive by Tremaine.
Or something like that. Plot coherence isn't on director Camille Delamarre's agenda. All he cares about are the action scenes. That wouldn't be such a bad thing, except that they're not very good either. They're so fast that the camera can't keep up with it (and the fact that Delamarre is constantly moving the camera and frantically cutting the shots certainly doesn't help matters). There are some nice stunts like jumping up walls and flying through windows, and one scene where Damien and Lino jump on bad guys' backs and flip off them, but that's it. It's a lot like freerunning, only it's so inept that it's impossible to even "ooh" and "ahh" at it.
The best thing about this movie is the late Paul Walker. While he didn't have a lot of range, his talents were completely unrecognized. I liked him in "Into the Blue" and "Running Scared," but this is his best performance. He's focused and always convincing. The film is rarely very good, but it ventures into "unwatchable" territory whenever he isn't on screen. David Belle is okay, but I won't be awaiting his next film with much anticipation. RZA is kind of dull; he's not a good villain. More interesting is his cohort, Rayzah (Denis), who loves violence as much as Xenia Onatopp in "GoldenEye."
The film is dedicated to Paul Walker. It would be a more fitting epitaph to a life cut short if the film was better.
Starring: Paul Walker, David Belle, RZA, Catalina Denis, Ayisha Denis, Bruce Ramsay
Rated PG-13 for Frenetic Gunplay, Violence and Action Throughout, Language, Sexual Menace and Drug Material
I almost didn't see this movie. Paul Walker was favorite screen star, and I had a huge crush on him. So when I heard of his death last year, I was devastated. I feared that it would be too painful. But I saw it anyway, and unfortunately, it's pretty lame.
Few things are worse than bad action movies, and "Brick Mansions" is one of them. The film is constantly moving, but there's no point to it all. I didn't care about the plot (which is very lame), and it takes itself far too seriously.
In 2018, Detroit is a war zone. The worst part of town is Brick Mansions, a housing project that is a cross between Cabrini-Green and Estonia as portrayed in "Lilya-4-Ever." The mayor wants to tear it all down and rebuild, but the question remains about what to do with all the people living there. Then a neutron bomb is stolen by Tremaine (RZA), Brick Mansions' crime lord. The mayor sends in a local detective named Damien (Walker) to find it and disable it, and he's paired up with a cop killer named Lino (Belle), whose girlfriend is held captive by Tremaine.
Or something like that. Plot coherence isn't on director Camille Delamarre's agenda. All he cares about are the action scenes. That wouldn't be such a bad thing, except that they're not very good either. They're so fast that the camera can't keep up with it (and the fact that Delamarre is constantly moving the camera and frantically cutting the shots certainly doesn't help matters). There are some nice stunts like jumping up walls and flying through windows, and one scene where Damien and Lino jump on bad guys' backs and flip off them, but that's it. It's a lot like freerunning, only it's so inept that it's impossible to even "ooh" and "ahh" at it.
The best thing about this movie is the late Paul Walker. While he didn't have a lot of range, his talents were completely unrecognized. I liked him in "Into the Blue" and "Running Scared," but this is his best performance. He's focused and always convincing. The film is rarely very good, but it ventures into "unwatchable" territory whenever he isn't on screen. David Belle is okay, but I won't be awaiting his next film with much anticipation. RZA is kind of dull; he's not a good villain. More interesting is his cohort, Rayzah (Denis), who loves violence as much as Xenia Onatopp in "GoldenEye."
The film is dedicated to Paul Walker. It would be a more fitting epitaph to a life cut short if the film was better.
Another good Paul Walker performance was his work in "Hours" (even if the movie wasn't great), which I believe came out right after he died. Have you seen that one?
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