“Brick Mansions” is the penultimate film starring “Fast & Furious” actor Paul Walker, who died tragically in a car accident last November. He plays Damien Collier, an undercover cop in 2018 Detroit, which has officially become the most dangerous city in America. In order to prevent escalating crime, giant walls have been built around a section of the city which once was filled with high-end, high rise apartments but is now populated by drug dealers and other assorted criminals. The area is called Brick Mansions.
For years, Damien has been trying to track down the leader of Brick Mansions, a drug dealer named Tremaine (played by rapper RZA), who he believes killed his father (who was also a cop), during a previous raid on the complex. The bad guys get their hands on a bomb, so the mayor recruits Damien to sneak inside Brick Mansions, disarm the bomb and take out Tremaine once and for all. And he’ll have a partner – a former resident of the area named Lino (David Belle). The plot of “Brick Mansions” swerves into typical action movie territory, as Tremaine devises his own plans, which include using the bomb to blow-up all of Detroit.
The execution of “Brick Mansions” can be summed-up in one word: goofy. The script is filled with way too many ridiculous plot elements. And every action scene is either hand-to-hand slow motion, gymnastic fights, fast-paced chase scenes that are too rushed to comprehend, massive gunplay in which no one actually gets shot, or a combination of all three. The first few of these are mildly entertaining, including a chase in which Walker’s character hangs-onto the back of a speeding car, but they get very uninteresting soonafter.
The film is also very poorly made. The obvious audio re-dubbing of everyone in the cast except for Walker and RZA is extremely embarrassing. Maybe this is why these two are the only ones who give the semi-believable best performances. This is a remake of a 2004 French film called “Banlieue 13”. At times is seems like this film was being dubbed from some other language to English – and badly.
And it’s impossible not to cringe when watching Walker involved in numerous high speed car chases. Obviously it’s part of the story, but director Camille Delamarre deserves some criticism for leaving one particular scene, in which Walker loses control of the car he’s driving and crashes, in the film. Considering the circumstances of the actor’s death this was a tasteless decision. It’s fortunate that “Brick Mansions” isn’t Walker’s final film. Expect the people involved with next year’s “Fast & Furious 7” to give him a more honorable and memorable send-off.
“Brick Mansions” is rated PG-13, though it is filled with a substantial amount of violence and adult language (including the N-word). It’s not as bad as “Pain & Gain”, which came-out this time last year, the week before the start of the Summer Movie Season. But it’s not worth wasting your money on when there are so many big films in its way.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Brick Mansions” gets a C-.