Brick Mansions

There is a whole lot of Parkour moves in the movie Brick Mansions that won’t make you yawn at the movie. From scene one itself the hero is in the free running mode and the shallow script hides its inabilities by making things happen in a really speedy way. The imaginary landscape and the politics behind it are a bit too much to sync in as sensible fiction.

Brick Mansions is that isolated place in the middle of the city which became like that because of uncontrollable crimes that happened there. The authorities wants to evacuate the place but their efforts were not paying off. As the illegal activities goes on, a threat inside these mansions becomes a danger for the whole city and the authorities are forced to send detective Damien Collier and a criminal Lino Dupree (A native of Brick Mansions) to resolve the complication. How these guys manages to succeed in this mission is what the film talking about.

Firstly there isn’t a convincing write up to establish the whole concept of Brick Mansions. To have such a setup in a city, the things needs to be that deadly.  And the 90 minutes run time just doesn’t go for anything to give its title a deadly feel. The bomb thing and kidnapping were some outdated ideas that we have seen in films like transporter. In the middle of all this, there are some nicely choreographed action sequences that makes the screenplay all pumped. The final twist had the scope to be something fresh but it didn’t worked for me as a viewer.

On screen, on his last outing Paul Walker has kept it cool. More than acting, the movie demands the Parkour instincts of the actors and he along with the Parkour founder David belle gives us some good entertainment. RZA also did his part nicely.

Director was successful in keeping the film in that pumped up state. But the story and the developments where not appealing. Some scenes from the trailer was missing in the film (Indian censors I guess). Edits are smart. Good cinematography and decent usage of visual effects.

Overall Brick Mansions is just a passable entertainer that won’t bore you with its small runtime. Action choreographers can watch this film for some inspiration. My rating for Brick Mansions is 2/5. RIP Paul Walker. Will miss Brian O’Conner.