Brick Mansions is a film based off of the french film District B13, but instead of being located in Paris, it takes place in Detroit. The title of this movie is derived from a government-quarantined housing project. The mayor in the film states in the beginning that he wants to “rebuild detroit,” which foreshadows to his plan of essentially blowing up brick mansions to get rid of the poor people who don’t contribute to the community.
The acting in the movie was not the best by any means, the delivery seemed sub-par. With that being said, there were some highlight moments with dialogue. Rapper/actor RZA, best known for his work in rap group Wu Tang Clan, plays a lead drug dealer in the film. He references the classic Wu Tang Clan song “C.R.E.A.M.” when he says to Paul Walker “Cash rules everything around me.” It was moments like this where the film brought in some comedic relief
It should be noted that the writers did their research for the film. The code to disarm the bomb in the film is 48216, which happens to be the zip code for a section in Detroit. It could be inferred that the mayor wanting to throw citizens under the bus could perhaps be a stab at former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick.
Brick Mansions also featured a scene which seemed like a direct ripoff from Breaking Bad– when Paul Walker and his affiliates at the time go into a laundromat and there is a secret doorway which opens up from behind a washing machine to hide their drug operation– almost exactly the same as in the show.
The “Father of Parkour” David Belle plays Lino, a protagonist throughout the film. The film had many fight scenes that were so far over the top that they almost became overplayed. In every one of these scenes that Belle was in, there was parkour involved and it just got stale after repeatedly seeing it because it took away the shock factor.
There were some cool shots of the Detroit skyline in the film, which some of them featured a GM’less Renaissance Center. Most of the scenes however took place in the ruins of the housing project Brick Mansions. Once the film ends there is a tribute to Paul Walker which features a picture of him and text that says “In Loving Memory of Paul Walker.” It was nice tribute to end the film.
Simply put, this is a typical action movie with everything from the cheesy dialogue, to the comedic relief, to the over the top fight since. With this being Paul Walker’s last film (before the unreleased Fast & Furious 7), it leaves the fans wishing it had been a film that was more desirable. By all means was this film not entertaining in a sense of amusement, but for those who take their movies very seriously this is not a film that will be received well. 6.5/10
