Set in 2018, the heroes are the late Paul as Damien Collier, a narcotics cop out for revenge after his father was killed, and David Belle as Lino Dupree, a vigilante accused of killing a dirty cop so he’s a felon on the run. In a classic case of mismatched buddies, they team up to defuse a neutron bomb threat hijacked by a powerful drug lord, Tremaine Alexander (played by RZA of the hip-hop group, Wu Tang Clan) who rules the Brick Mansions. There's also a smoking-hot super black villainess (Ayisha Issa) who wears a push-up bra to work, who figures in a ferocious girl fight with Lino’s beautiful Latina girlfriend (Catalina Denis), with chains and whips at that.
“Brick Mansions” is an action-thriller that works and features one adrenaline-charged, hyper-stylized, beautifully choreographed action sequence after another. The action just never lets up. The unarmed heroes subdue several heavily armed thugs by just flipping and jumping faster than speeding bullets. It’s set in a housing project called Brick Mansions because they were walled off by the city’s corrupt mayor for his own ulterior motives.
The movie has all the elements of a Besson action flick that makes it fun to watch. You see bodies flying all around and stuntmen being maimed. We also like the twist in the end, which has a social relevance dimension into it concerning greedy politicians.
At the end credits, the photo of the late Paul Walker was shown with the caption “In memory of Paul Walker”. All the audience sighed loudly.Somehow, you can’t help but feel sad watching the movie because we know he is now gone forever. His arresting on-screen charisma remains very evident here. He’ll still be seen in ‘Fast and the Furious 7’, though, with his brothers standing for him to complete the scenes he left behind. He makes a good team with the vertically challenged David Belle who appears in his first English language film. Both actors are well versed in the art of stylized fighting, especially Belle who brings intense energy to his performance. RZA also makes his mark as the scenery-chewing crime boss who loves to cook. All in all, the movie succeeds in its intention of being a kinetic and highly entertaining action flick that runs for a brisk one hour and a half and shows two white guys beating up scores and scores of badass black guys. But in the end, it turns out that the most evil guys are white ones in high offices.
