Brick Mansions (2014)

Brick Mansions: Directed by Camille Delamarre. With Paul Walker, David Belle, RZA, Goûchy Boy. An undercover Detroit cop navigates a dangerous neighborhood that’s surrounded by a containment wall with the help of an ex-con in order to bring down a crime lord and his plot to devastate the entire city.

“In case you are wondering, I did see several years ago the French movie u0026quot;District B13u0026quot;, which is the original movie that lead to this remake. However, I have completely forgotten what it was like – though that fact does make it easier to judge this remake on its own terms instead of comparing it to the original. Despite this perspective, the movie just didnu0026#39;t do it for me. There is a strong whiff of the movie u0026quot;Escape From New Yorku0026quot; here, as well as to a lesser extent u0026quot;Robocopu0026quot; and other Hollywood movies, so there isnu0026#39;t a feeling of originality here. The script also suffers from the fact that neither the protagonists or antagonists are that compelling or particularly fleshed out. I know, I know – the script really doesnu0026#39;t matter in a movie like this. What matters is the action and other kinds of eye candy. Well, the movie doesnu0026#39;t do that well on those angles as well. The action (which is so-so at its best) is rapidly edited to try to hide the fact the actors canu0026#39;t pull off multiple moves in the same shot, and obvious stuntmen are used for the few trickier moments. And while the movie was a co-production between two countries (France and Canada), the movie often has a cheap look and feel to it. Itu0026#39;s obvious why this movie did unspectacular business at the box office, though why the late Paul Walker apparently saw promise in this project is a question we may never learn the answer to.”