Brick Mansions (2014)

the audience applauded

Lack of good storyline.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This English-language remake of the excellent DISTRICT 13 was once again made by the French, albeit shot in Canada this time around. It's pretty much a scene-for-scene remake of the original, although inevitably not as good for reasons which we shall come to. It's only as the running time goes on that crucial differences to the original come to light and unfortunately they're not improvements.First, let's get the good stuff listed. This is a short, snappy, action thriller, with plenty of shoot-outs and fight scenes to recommend it. The framing is often good and there's a fine sense of setting in the grubby, run-down locations. One of the highlights is the return of David Belle, playing the same character as he did in the original; it's just an annoyance that they decided to dub him rather than have him use his French accented English.Paul Walker is an odd but obvious choice for Cyril Raffaelli's character in the original, but he's no martial artist so the martial arts fights have been replaced by fist fights and a greater emphasis on car chases. Catalina Denis and Ayisha Issa are the requisite scantily-clad women who hang around to show off their bodies and little more is required of them than that.The problems are slight at first but begin to mount up as the narrative progresses. First off, the editing is horrendous. The early Parkour scenes are ruined by the refusal to shoot the stunts in single, fluid takes; there's always a dodgy edit halfway through, cutting to a different angle and lessening the impact. Sometimes one of Belle's jumps has three or four edits in it which ruins the whole flow of the thing. BRICK MANSIONS does a lot right, but it gets this crucial editing oh so wrong. I remember in the old days of Jackie Chan's 1980s movies that they sometimes wanted to capture a stunt from different angles, so they would just replay it, which was a much better way of doing it.The second problem is RZA, playing the drug dealer villain of the piece. RZA is one of those guys who really loves himself and the film-makers seem to love him too, so there's an unbelievable twist at the end which has to be seen to be believed. The ending is frankly laughable in this respect, and a far cry from the power of the original movie. It's the epitome of sanitised, PG-13 entertainment, and I could cry. At least the rest of the film is in the right spirit, so it's only the ending where it falls apart.

This movie is remake of French movie 'Banlieue 13'. Can a remake worse than its first version? This movie showed that the answer is 'YES!'.This is his final movie but unfortunately Paul Walker is not as good as Cyril Raffaelli. It would have been better if Jason Statham played the role of Damien. I believe that he could be better than Paul Walker. David Belle played in both of the movies but even he was better in first version of the movie. Screenplay is nearly copy-paste. It has just little differences and I can say that Banlieue 13 has a better story and better scenes. However people who want to see an action movie may watch this movie. Not too long and not boring.By the way, RIP to Paul Walker.

Though this movie has its share of action and bad guys vs. good guys fist fights and gunshots, I have to admit I watched it for the sake of the late actor Paul Walker.Too bad an action hero whose "Fast and Furious" franchise is known about as well as other fare (*spoiler* let's say Rachael Leigh Cook's character of Laney Boggs gave him an ear injury in "She's all That"... hem ?) left us so fast, but letting us appreciate at least another try in an action film shot in my hometown of Montreal (passing for Detroit).For the rest, I heard it's a remake of a French movie, but had its share of violence all over. But not as bad, rather entertaining at least. Enjoy rather than taking it too seriously. After all, just wondering how improbable you can survive all the physical pursuits in there and avoiding the gunshots...For the rest, this is mostly Luc Besson's fare...RIP Paul Walker, thanks for the memories of a 2000s action hero !

If not compared to the original french movie DISTRICT 13, BRICK MANSIONS is a decent and highly entertaining action flick on it's own. If compared to DISTRICT B13 it's not as good but not as bad as people have been saying.This version's biggest problem mainly resides in it's casting. Paul Walker as Damien is actually okay, his only drawback is he doesn't exactly pull off the kind of moves Cyril Raffaelli does in his fight scenes. Which is something I don't consider one of the films major issues. In the case of the lead bad guy I'm pretty sure they could've found someone better than RZA to play the role. The problem with RZA is that he always looks like he's sleepwalks through every role I saw him play from the one in THE MAN WITH THE IRON FIST to G.I JOE RETALIATION, and he sometimes sounds like he doesn't speak properly as if he always has a cold.All in all, aside from the flaws BRICK MANSIONS is a decent action flick if not compared to the original french film. Although in all honesty I do prefer DISTRICT B13 as well as it's sequel.