Why, cruel world, why? Why did you take Paul Walker so young? He had so many mediocre action films left to make.
You know, crashing into barriers at 80 MPH kills some people. It even injures a few. Brick Mansions is the kind of film where the car crash folks exit the vehicle unharmed and have a bitchin’ fight. Um … ok. You better have some damn good fight choreography. You do? Oh. Yeah, choreography is what this film is all about; it sure ain’t the acting or plot.
It’s the future; it’s Detroit; it’s violent and drug abused and turf wars are common occurrences. Stop when you’ve heard this before. Oh, you’ll like this part – a section of the city, Brick Mansions, has been quarantined, its citizens are treated like prisoners and the cop hero (Walker) must go in alone to retrieve a valuable package. This is actually an American remake of the French thriller District B13; it’s a little bit of Robocop, a little bit of Dredd, and a whole dungheap of Escape from New York.
I gotta wonder what Detroit people think of Hollywood constantly saying, “your city sucks so much in the present, we fully expect it to be the crime capital of the future.”
Brick Mansions is as much about rogue citizen Lino (David Belle, hey, the guy from District B13!) as about Paul Walker. Frenchy Dave here is still a kick-ass stuntman, and the film opens with an awesome, if silly, extended parkour sequence. This is the kind of stuntwork that roams from rooftop to rooftop with bad guys constantly appearing by magic if only to get punched, kneed, kicked, trompled, jack-rabbited, Moe Howarded, dryhumped and generally dissed. They all hold guns, but keep the safety on as if everybody is on a strict bullet budget. It’s 
important not to think too much during this film. Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri clearly wrote this thing after playing a marathon session of Vice City. Everybody in this film, especially head druglord Tremaine (RZA), talks like he’s a character in a video game.
Director Camille Delamarre looked at all the characters involved: the mob boss, the thugs, the cops, the street hoods, the feds, the munchkins, Robocop, the Lions, etc. and decided the only truly evil one among them was the Mayor of Detroit. The result is one of these annoying kind of movies where there’s plenty of death, but only among insignificant cast members. The others have to see each other’s POV and work it out like adults. Yeah, that’s fine except you had a guy jump off a rooftop to avoid an exploding grenade before the title sequence. Reason is not a good sell here.
Brick Mansions ain’t a great film. It has bad plot, bad dialogue and ugly use of clichés throughout. But I’d be quite the jerk if I said Jackie Chan was the only guy who could pull off a street fight sequence while being cuffed to a steering wheel. The stunts are fun. Dig the fisticuffs. Turn off and enjoy.
The future of Detroit is a zoo
Criminals many, heroes few
Don’t take offense
About this pretense
This city’s present sucks, too
Rated PG-13, 90 Minutes
D: Camille Delamarre
W: Luc Besson, Bibi Naceri
Genre: The crime-riddled future of Detroit
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Parkour enthusiasts
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Detroit natives
