Not Walker's Fault

Brick Mansions

I guess the only way I feel comfortable with writing this article is to rant about this film. I didn’t want to write a review about Paul Walker’s last complete film and totally bash it out of respect for Walker. I just hope that other films Walker was a part of will be remembered more than Brick Mansions.

Mansions takes place a few years into the future, where a section of Detroit is closed off to the rest of the world and left for all the criminals. So basically someone decided to wall off a bad part of town and gave up on the people inside those walls. Paul Walker’s character is an undercover detective for the Detroit Police (on the good side of the wall) and his recruited by city officials to infiltrate the walled off part of the city dubbed Brick Mansions. The reason for this is because a crime lord (RZA) has hijacked a truck carrying a hydrogen bomb and has somehow activated it on accident. Walker is reluctantly teamed up with Lino (David Belle The Family), a resident of Brick Mansions, to help Walker find the bomb. Oh and did I mention that Lino’s girlfriend is being held hostage by the same crime lord because Lino destroyed his drugs.

Let me start by saying that this is a case where the actors did as much as they could with a bad script. Walker tries to carry the film, but because of the terrible writing, Walker just can’t keep the movie a float. I was confused by the way the script turned out because the film is a remake of a French film (District 13) and is written by Luc Besson, who wrote the screenplay for the original movie! I have not seen the original, but I have heard that it wasn’t this bad. The movie just has way too many subplots going on in an 80 minute time frame. I could tell the director knew there was too much because the movie jumps around more than a doped up rabbit.

I was never a Paul Walker fan (Running Scared being the only movie of his I enjoyed), but I hate to see him go out like this. I understand that Walker will be best remembered for The Fast and the Furious films, but this will be Walker’s last complete film. At least Heath Ledger has The Dark Knight, but Walker will always be linked to this trash. I think Universal Studios should just lie and say, “Yeah Paul Walker finished all of his scenes for Fast & Furious 7 before his untimely death.

I would love to know whose decision it was to edit and cut the movie this way. If someone was trying to make the film a pure action film, then why not make the movie simpler. No need to add all the subplots. But if someone wanted the subplots, why not make the movie long enough for the characters and plot to naturally develop.

Hopefully I can come back around and provide a review of the original in hopes of a better action movie worth your time. Please forget this film ever existed, I know I will try, because I would like to remember Paul Walker in a much better light.