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Critics Consensus: Choppily edited and largely bereft of plot, Brick Mansions wastes a likable cast on a pointless remake of the far more entertaining District B13.
Critic Consensus: Choppily edited and largely bereft of plot, Brick Mansions wastes a likable cast on a pointless remake of the far more entertaining District B13.
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All Critics (92) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (68)
This is ultimately a movie about class warfare and social oppression that isn't remotely science-fictional. It's real, and as dumb as this remake is, it sends you home thinking.
Follows the bog-standard formula perfected by Besson: combining functional storylining with competent action highlights and an occasional air of whimsy.
It's fun to see Walker do a double take at a perilous move of Belle's and then find a less risky alternative. The pair seem like they're having a good time in this buddy action movie. It seems a fitting curtain call for a likable actor gone too soon.
Almost no one in this film is allowed to play to their strengths.
It should be wilder, funnier, nuttier.
Brick Mansions is a non-starter: It chokes on its déjà vu, the hyperactive Mixmaster editing is exhausting and the characters' banter is so leaden it might violate federal emission standards.
It's at its best a by-the-numbers thriller that represents exactly what Besson's career has become: one senseless, uninspired, unrealistic actioner after another.
The film has a message at its core but the execution is way too simplistic with the actors acting as if they weren't paid.
These types of films are going to be less fun without Walker pushing them along.
Fit to be condemned.
"Frankly, there are a lot of actors who have a lot of worse 'last films' on their credits."
Routine all the way, although Belle's moves are thrilling to watch.
Choppily edited and clumsily directed, this unnecessary remake of the awesome film "District B13" is more depressing than it is entertaining. Being one of Paul Walker's final films, I feel bad that he chose to do this, because he is capable of so much better. This film feels like a mix of parkour and the worst parts of "Fast and Furious," but done even worse. Farfetched action can be fun, but when they are just originary people, you really just do not buy into it, and sadly, that is how I felt throughout almost this entire fim. There is nothing dreaful about this film, but there is not one aspect I would consider even mildly enjoyable, so for that, it is a really bad movie. "Brick Mansions" boasts a talent cast that has nothing to do, a cliched premise that hardly pays homage to it's original, and editing that must have been thrown together in a weekend. Some of the fight scenes seem so wquick that they must have been edited down in the final product and it shows perfusely. In the end, I am extremely disappointed, because I am a huge fan of the orinigal film.
Super Reviewer
An American remake of the French action film District B13, Brick Mansions attempts to fix what isn't broken. Luc Besson reworks his script so that now it's set in a futuristic Detroit where an undercover cop must infiltrate an autonomous, crime ridden section of the city ruled by a gangster that has acquired a WMD. Most of the changes, such as making the sister character an ex-girlfriend and turning Tremaine into an antihero, actually weaken the film. Still, most of the same action beats and stunts are carried over, and bring a lot of excitement and fun to the chase and fight sequences. Additionally, David Belle returns to reprise his role as Leo, and is joined by a strong cast that includes Paul Walker and RZA. Still, Brick Mansions feels pretty generic and isn't able to recapture the same energy of the original.
The action sequences are over edited until you have no idea what's going on and the plot is not engaging at all. Throw in an extremely wooden antagonist and Brick Mansions cannot be saved by the likable Walker and the parkour.
Fans of the original french classic will love this movie. It's solid and exhilarating escapism. An adrenaline-injected and heart-pounding action-thriller. It's a flat-out edge of your seat action-packed thrill-machine the delivers an incredible body of work involving parkour, martial arts, gun fights and chases that will make this nothing but a true guilty pleasure for a fun 90 minute running time. A consistently enjoyable and tremendously entertaining action movie. A sizzling and explosive knockout from start to finish. Producer-Writer, Luc Besson breaths new life into his original material with Director, Camille Delamarre, they pay great tribute to the original work but paves its own way and makes it's own movie. Paul Walker and David Belle are in their element. Belle soars to all sorts of heights with his amazing athleticism in his craft and gives a terrific performance in his role from the original movie. Walker is thrilling, he gives a charming, sharp and gritty performance that establishes himself as an action hero just fine. Rza is fantastic.
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