BRICK MANSIONS (AKA 48 HOURS) Directed by Camille Delamarre who also did....well, only this so far. An unnecessary remake of District 13, Brick Mansions takes place in a dystopian Detroit...which is almost not so different from regular Detroit. Drug runner Lino is on the run from crime kingpin Tremaine Alexander. Coincidentally, not so undercover cop Damien Collier wants to capture Tremaine to avenge the death of his father. Infiltrating the titular Brick Mansions, our two heroes cross paths and go head to head with Tremaine and his crew WITH THE POWER OF PARKOUR! Yeah, the thing that nobody really talks about anymore, remember that?
The plot of this film is half ridiculous, half saturday morning cartoons. Luckily it's the latter that's the saving grace for me with this movie. I never saw the original, but from what I've read, the story is fairly faithful to it. However, I think it might not have translated well. It's fairly predictable in some areas and cliched. The rich are evil, the poor are the just. You've seen it all before. David Belle reprises his role somewhat from the original and does okay, there isn't really much of an arc he goes through. Paul Walker as Damien Collier (in his second to last film) does an okay job as well, he has more character growth than Lino, although both characters grow on you as the film progresses. The chemistry between these two is actually pretty good. They make a great team and play off each other well. The RZA plays Tremaine Alexander, the sort of villain of the film. I say sort of because there is a twist towards the end that's just laughable and even though this film is a bit tounge in cheek, it's still not credible. I really don't know what to make of The RZA as an actor, I don't think he did too good in this. He tries to be Jamaican in some areas (I guess he forgot?) and it's just forced and hard to watch. In the end, I just couldn't take his character seriously.
The action and fight scenes were well shot and choreographed and the real highlight of this film. Pretty much one of the only reasons you'd see this besides Paul Walker. David Belle has some fantastic fighting and stunts in this film while Walker actually manages to keep up and equally has some good moments.
I have to say, I wasn't expecting much from this one, especially since I heard this was originally going to be direct to video.But, to my surprise I liked it more than I thought I would. If they made a sequel with these 2 again, let alone a franchise, I'd definitely give it a look. The film was shot well, it didn't look cheap and seemed to make good use of it's budget. This is a standard paint by the numbers action movie that does have some genuine thrills despite some ridiculous characters and plot. A decent time killer. Give it a rent.
7 Yamakasis out of 10
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