Director: Camille Delamarre
Writers: Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri
Cast: Paul Walker, David Belle and The RZA
Studio: Relativity Media
“Brick Mansions” is a film about parkour. It’s a film about Detroit. It’s a film that feels like something Cannon would’ve thrown together. Basically, it’s the near future and a lone cop has to team up with a poor Frenchman to fight an arms dealer. A neutron bomb has disappeared into a Carpenterian ghetto and the Detroit PD have to stop it from going off. Everyone involved has their reasons for stopping the blast. But, this is Paul Walker’s journey.
Paul Walker is getting this sort of B-movie action star sainthood in the months following his death. If he would’ve survived ghost riding the whip to Hell, I don’t think he would’ve started making better movies. He would’ve hopped franchises and kept trying to find the next vehicle that keeps him fresh in the minds of dirtbag kids hanging out in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The guy wasn’t a great actor, but he had enough of a personality to keep an action film moving forward. Plus, they didn’t have to dub him with Vin Diesel or anything.
While I’m glad that somebody will probably discover “District B13” because of this movie, I just wish this film was a little tighter. The end result is a remake that tries to hide its remake status because foreign movies scare the American mainstream. The parkour action is there, but there’s no reason to believe that this couldn’t have been anything else other than another generic Walker vehicle. The generic blandness of modern American action is hitting a fever pitch. Whether it’s the push to recruit foreigners or keep digging up our ancient action heroes, America refuses to support any new blood. When people like Scott Adkins and….wait. Scott Adkins is British. There aren’t any real action stars left in America under the age of 40. Let’s watch “Brick Mansions” again and celebrate the decline of action cinema.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!