Brick Mansions

MPAA/Content PG-13 [AC, AL, V]

Distributor Relativity Media [2014]

Technical 2.35:1 HD

Genres ACT THR MAR

Runtime 89 mins.

Cntry./Lang. France Canada [English]

Budget $28M

 

CAST

Paul Walker, David Belle, RZA, Gouchy Boy, Catalina Denis, Ayisha Issa, Carlo Rota, Andreas Apergis, Richard Zeman, Robert Maillet, Bruce Ramsay & Frank Fontaine

 

CREDITS

Director: Camille Delamarre; Screenwriter: Luc Besson; Producers: Claude Leger & Jonathan Vanger; Director Of Photography: Christophe Collette; Production Designer: Jean-Andre Carriere; Editors: Carlo Rizzo & Arthur Tarnowski; Costume Designer: Julie Patkos; Music Composer: Marc Bell

 

THE SYNOPSIS

Detroit, 2018: An increase in violence and crime prompts the city to wall off the most dangerous part of town—a collection of old housing projects known as Brick Mansions—in the hopes of containing its most dangerous criminals. Sitting atop the food chain is ruthless drug kingpin Tremaine (RZA), a badass dude who’ll kill an underling for botching a job while cooking a gourmet meal.

He orders his underboss K2 (Boy) and squeeze Rayza (Issa) to apprehend Lino (Belle)—an acrobatic French expatriate/ex-con/parkour expert who makes it a point of fighting Tremaine and his goons to keep Brick Mansions as safe as possible. K2 convinces Tremaine to kidnap Lino’s estranged girlfriend Lola (Denis) and hold her hostage, so as to lure Lino into their clutches. However, the skilled Lino breaks her out and kidnaps Tremaine—bringing him to Brick Mansions’ police precinct only to be arrested as the corrupt cops hand Lola over to Tremaine.

A while later, a suitcase bomb is stolen from DPD auspices and finds its way into Tremaine’s hands—which he will place on a rocket aimed for downtown Detroit unless his multi-million dollar ransom demand is not met. Detroit’s Mayor (Ramsay) and his cronies Berringer (Apergis) & Maj. Reno (Zeman) recruit top undercover Detective Damien Collier (Walker) to infiltrate Brick Mansions with the help of Lino to take down Tremaine.

Turns out that Damien has his own beef with Tremaine—whom he claims killed his police officer father during a raid a few years back. Damien frees Lino from prison and—after some parkour roughhousing and double-crossing—the two men team up to bring down Tremaine and his crew while disarming the bomb/rocket. However, not everything is as it seems—as Tremaine might not be the bad guy they have to worry about…

THE CRITIQUE

American remakes of French films usually don’t reach the critical or financial success of its cinematic forbearer (e.g. 1955’s Les Diaboliques vs. 1996’s Diabolique or 1951’s The Wages Of Fear vs. 1977’s Sorcerer—and just to show you that it’s not all Henri-Georges Clouzot vs. Hollywood, I’ll even throw in 1990’s La Femme Nikita vs. 1993’s Point Of No Return for good measure).  I won’t even bring up the whole Taxi (1998) vs. Taxi (2004) fiasco…sacrebleu!!

To this point, I bring up the most recent “remport” (yes, a made-up portmanteau of remake & import… and yes, I am tres cool…) BRICK MANSIONS—a nifty remake of the parkour masterpiece Banlieue 13 (2004); or as it was called Stateside: District B13 (2006) (please click here for my enthusiastic review of it). More precisely, it is a remake and a reinvention—moreso the latter due to the obvious geographical relocation (from the outermost, dystopic, poverty-stricken, crime-riddled section of the Paris metroplex to the outermost, dystopic, poverty-stricken, crime-riddled section of Detroit, MI)—but also the Americanization of the Gallic action sub-genre…yet still made by the French filmmakers who pioneered the movement in the first place.

As with the original, this one is written and co-produced by Luc Besson (director of The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, Léon aka The Professional, The Fifth Element, The Family)—the godfather of modern French Action Cinema who has written & produced crossover hits such as the Jason Statham-starring Transporter series (2002-08), the Liam Neeson-starring Taken series (2008-15) and two Jet Li movies: Kiss Of The Dragon (2001) & Unleashed (2005). For BRICK MANSIONS, he is abetted by longtime writing partner Robert Mark Kamen (The Karate Kid series; Transporter series; Taken series)—listed in the credits as “Artistic Consultant”…whatever that means. Perhaps he helped David Belle perfect those Parkour moves for North American consumption!

Anyway, as reconceived by Besson, the screenplay is structured appropriately and hits all of the action beats with ease. Hell, there may even be some class struggle themes hidden within the subtext. The characters are not fully fleshed out—but still exhibit enough human qualities that we can let it all roll in. No, the real problem is that the plot is introduced in Act I, worked over through Act II and then in Act III, inexplicably introduces a big twist that causes an unrealistic shift in some of the characters’ arcs! Specifically, it is not so much the plot twist that rings false—but the way certain characters handle it. I would spill the beans, but see the movie for yourself for merde’s sake!!

BRICK MANSIONS is helmed with a strong visual acumen by Camille Delamarre, making his directorial debut here after earning his keep as the editor of Besson-produced movies Transporter 3 (2008), Colombiana (2011), Lockout (2012) & Taken 2 (2012). As a director-editor myself, I truly believe that editors make the best directors because of their ability to put the movie together in a cohesive manner by understanding the intrinsic values of the genre (particularly action). Everything flows in this movie and Delamarre makes it happen (under the Besson’s tutelage, of course). Nice work!

The cast is also game for the action at hand. It is bittersweet to see one of the last screen performances of Paul William Walker IV (1973-2013)—a talented, photogenic, charismatic, beloved and respected actor who left us way too soon. In BRICK MANSIONS, Walker gives it his all—even learning parkour techniques to keep up with co-star David Belle (one of the founders of this French urban/martial discipline and the star of the original District B13).  Playing up to his physical strengths (but not so much the thick, French accent), Belle is photogenic, agile, sinewy and conveys his character’s lion heart in clear fashion. The filmmakers were smart to work the character around the actor and not the other way around. By the way: kudos to Belle and the stunt crew for whipping up some serious parkour stunts and choreography—again, not as zany as the French original, but enough to slake our thirst for this kind of goofy fun.

And as much as I like RZA the actor, I did not buy him as the movie’s villain. I don’t necessarily blame him—it really falls more to the inherent problems with Besson’s screenplay and the parameters he sets the villain within. Better are his minions, portrayed by Gouchy Boy (a Québécois rapper), femme fatale Aiysha Issa (a Québécois actress and martial artist) and the imposing Robert Maillet (a Québécois former WWE wrestler). And of course, I must mention the lovely Catalina Denis (a Columbian actress who’s not Québécois, but lives in France) for adding the feminine touch to the proceedings while being a strong, tough chick to boot. For the record: I would be glad to crash though her window anytime! Ooh la la!!

Production values for this slick $28 million production (boxofficemojo.com) are top-shelf. The movie was lensed in Montreal, Canada and Detroit, Michigan—with the former filling in as the Brick Mansions setting. Some nifty VFX helped bridge that cultural & geographical gap quite nicely.

BRICK MANSIONS is lensed by newbie cinematographer Christophe Collette, shooting the movie in HD-widescreen using the robust RED Epic camera system. If working under Besson improves director Delamarre’s métier, then Collette is on the same road to success. Utilizing an earthy palette of industrial grays & browns, melded with pale greens and deep blues, the cinematography exudes the texture & grit needed to make production designer Jean-Andre Carriere’s urban mise-en-scène believable. A fine job for both budding artisans.

Bringing it all together in the editing room are Québécois cutters Carlo Rizzo (Hitman, Transporter 3) and Arthur Tarnowski (Deadfall)—responsible for a propulsive (but occasionally choppy) editing schema entailing much of the Parkour gags and fight sequences. Editing action requires an intrinsic understanding of tempo, the camera’s spatial blocking and the energy coming from the footage itself. What works for car chases may not always work for fight sequences, and so on.

THE BOTTOM LINE

While it doesn’t match the dizzying heights of its Gallic forebearer, BRICK MANSIONS certainly earns its action pedigree thanks to solid production values, stunts galore and the opportunity to watch the late, great Paul Walker in one of his final roles. Stunted only by an illogical 3^rd Act twist, this one will easily scale the late night walls of cable channels everywhere.

 

IMDB:                    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1430612/

Wikipedia:             http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_Mansions

Official Site:          http://brickmansions.tumblr.com