Movie review by Greg Carlson

The brain dead “Brick Mansions” is, not surprisingly, a completely unnecessary remake of Pierre Morel’s “District 13,” (also known as “District B13,” “Banlieue 13,” or just “B13”) another title from Luc Besson’s seemingly endless supply of co-produced and/or co-written projects. Crammed start to finish with preposterous lapses in even the most basic logical assumptions about human nature, director Camille Delamarre’s movie may be remembered chiefly as the last film performance completed by Paul Walker prior to his death in November. Walker had not finished shooting his scenes for “Fast & Furious 7,” which will presumably mark his final cinematic appearance when released in 2015.

While Walker’s death adds an eerie, melancholy mood to “Brick Mansions,” especially during scenes in which the actor is involved in any kind of vehicular mayhem, his screen presence and persona are otherwise no different from the bland comeliness – highlighted in the actor’s athletic physique and pretty blue eyes – that served Walker from supporting roles in “Varsity Blues,” She’s All That” and “The Skulls” to his higher profile status as Brian O’Conner in the “The Fast and the Furious” franchise. In “Brick Mansions,” Walker plays undercover office Damien Collier, just about the last honest cop in corrupt, dystopian, 2018 Detroit.

The movie’s title refers to a walled-off stretch of public housing projects in the heart of the city where rampant crime and impossible economic conditions have led to a lawless no man’s land that echoes the isolated Manhattan of “Escape from New York” (minus John Carpenter’s wit and inventiveness). Greedy city officials are poised to level Brick Mansions to make way for new economic development, but drug kingpin Tremaine Alexander (RZA), in possession of an old Russian missile complete with groan-inducing red LED countdown clock and override/abort code keypad, has other ideas.

Choosing the movie’s worst feature is no easy task, but the convoluted knot of shifting allegiances involving straight arrow Collier, avenging anti-drug vigilante Lino (David Belle, reprising his role from the French original), and murderous kidnapper Tremaine is probably the leading contender. Tremaine guns down one of his own men at point blank for failing to kill Lino. He abducts Lino’s ex-girlfriend Lola (Catalina Denis) and subjects her to physical abuse at the hands of henchwoman Rayzah (Ayisha Issa), fully coded and loaded as the sadistic lesbian and lone female enforcer. Tremaine also chops peppers and speaks in culinary metaphors.

And yet, once the depth of City Hall malfeasance is revealed, Tremaine looks clean by comparison, emerging as a Robin Hood of the slums and joining forces with Collier and Lino. The laughable turnabout is arguably more entertaining than the frantic parkour choreography and certainly more enjoyable than the dismal and disheartening disposability of human life on display. The movie’s coda, an unintentionally hilarious vignette depicting Collier’s BMW convertible crawling through the streets of a reborn, sunny day Brick Mansions while previously homicidal thugs plant trees and Lino teaches tots to acrobatically vault and leap, punctuates full-circle idiocy: former nemesis Tremaine’s mug, previously tacked up on Collier’s wall as persona non grata, is now plastered across red, white, and blue posters announcing his mayoral campaign.