“Brick Mansions” is an hour and a half worth of action sequences held together by a simplistic plot.
Hello Moviegoers! If you like fighting, chase scenes, shoot-outs, and evasion scenes that make parkour look like the best thing since sliced bread, “Brick Mansions” is your movie. The film downplays an important commentary on social injustice, an intriguing stance on white collar versus gangster criminal activities, lacks character development, and shys away from anything that might make this movie anything other than a collection of action scenes.
Brick Mansions (2 sweet potatoes out of four) Stars: Paul Walker, David Belle, RZA, Catalina Denis, Gouchy Boy, Ayisha Issa; Director: Camille Delamarre; Genre: Action, Crime; Rated: PG-13; Running Time: 90 minutes; Opens: Friday, April 25, 2014.
Brick Mansions is the titled given to the most violent, poorest, and drug infested neighborhood in Detroit that has been blocked off from the rest of Chicago in the not so distant future. Now without schools, hospitals, or police, Tremaine (RZA) has taken over Brick Mansions by introducing military grade weapons and commandeering the drug trade. Lino (David Belle) is the only active member of Brick Mansions fighting back and tries to single handedly bring down Tremaine.
Damien Collier (Paul Walker) is a detective with a justice and revenge mission against Tremaine for the death of his father. He has been working up the drug trail and is one step away from Tremaine. When the military and the mayor of Chicago call on Damien for a special assignment in Brick Mansions to deactivate a bomb Tremaine has unknowingly activated, he will finally have his shot to take down Tremaine. Damien and Lino become semi-allies and try to work together to stop Tremaine and bring justice to Brick Mansions.
“Brick Mansions” doesn’t attempt to be anything more than an action flick complete with unrealistic heroic feats like one unarmed guy evading thirty people with machine guns and grenades. The characters are only established to the surface level and some not even that. It’s simply good guys and bad guys, and when the film has an opportunity to reconstruct that ideology it refuses.
With its simplistic plot, mundane dialogue, and few moments of downtime, “Brick Mansions” just manages to entertain because it trades words for car chases, character depth for gun fighting, and plot for athletic evasion. I give “Brick Mansions” two sweet potatoes out of four.
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