Brick Mansions (La fortaleza)

I like the good cinematography, even the opening credits alone already made me liked it. David Belle is still very cool with his spins, back-flips, jumps and other stunts. It has been 10 years but I don't see any degradation of his parkour skills.

Paul Walker did good as Belle's partner-in-crime, even though he can't do parkour, he still kicked-ass. Catalina Dennis who plays Belle's girlfriend is consistent with her character, a tough girl who doesn't stand still with unfair treatments. The lousy one is RZA who plays the drug lord Tremain. Well, in my opinion he can't act, his face expression just doesn't make it.

For those who like parkour but haven't watched Banlieue 13, this might as well be in your watchlist. It's still okay even if you have watched Banlieue 13 (like me), because it was in French and it felt quite weird, even with subtitles.

Acceptable remake filled with nail-biting action , thrills , spectacular scenes and plot twists . It deals with an undercover Detroit cop (Paul Walker) navigates a dangerous neighborhood that's surrounded by a containment wall with the help of an ex-con in order to bring down a crime lord and his plot to devastate the entire city . Thrilling and violent movie with a phenomenal starring pair and in which Paul Walker and David Belle cast all the Stuntmen themselves . Set in the rundown ghettos of Detroit , Michigan , when an undercover cop and an ex-thug try to infiltrate into a block , a police precinct and Town Hall in order to save their barrios when some enemies are bent on destroying the tower blocks at the heart of the District with tactical precision bombing . As Damien Collier (Paul Walker) and Lino (David Belle , the originator of Le Parkour) are reunited upon to avoid a bombing on destroying the blocks at the heart of District and save the city . They have to confront a dangerous delinquent called Tremain (RZA) , corrupt Police Chief from the Department of Internal State Security , and even the highest authorities , including the Mayor (Bruce Ramsay) . With acrobatic skillfulness and adrenaline pumping belief in their own abilities , they throw themselves out from incredible heights, and jump from roof to roof ; locked doors and 'No Trespassing' signs become irresistible challenges . They face off their enemies in order to avoid the total destruction their district , as Damien and Lito convince the gang lords to band together to prevent it when the high command authorizing the strike .

¨Brick Mansions ¨ is an amazing film that packs suspense , thrills, noisy action , shootouts and violent fights . This film is a remake of the French film "District B13" which stars David Belle in the same role as in this movie and again the main couple is unabashed in its dedication to fanboy stunt work . From the beginning to the final the noisy action and fast movement is unstopped , including impressive scenes in which bounds and leaps through apartments blocks and at moments give the impression that they are flying . This is a frenetic rehash of ¨Escape from NY¨ and ¨District 13¨ rightly realized in American style . The highlights of the movie are overwhelming fights and The Parkour , also known in USA as Free Running whose origin was in ¨Yamasaki¨ film directed by Ariel Zeitoun , Julien Seri and also produced by Luc Besson with his production company called ¨EuropaCorps¨ . Paul Walker as a hard-rock , two-fisted agent is top-notch . Duo protagonist , Paul Walker and David Belle , more than make up for in an skill to soar across a rolling medley highrise flats blocks . The way in which the actors prove this abilities , is in fact an activity called Parkour and was invented by David Belle himself , influenced by his father Raymond Belle . David Belle also choreographed some fight sequences . Paul Walker and David Belle had several months to prepare all their fight stunts for the film . Paul Walker stared in "Running Scared" (2006) as an undercover cop , the same role he played in "Brick Mansions" (2014), it's also the character he performed in "The Fast and the Furious" (2001) as Brian O'Connor . Paul Walker's last fully completed acting , although his final film performance was in Fast & Furious 7 which he was filming at the time of his death . In fact , the ending title has a beloved homage : ¨In loving memory of Paul Walker¨ . Good and atmospheric cinematography using Steadicam and zooms with numerous locations from Detroit skyline and slums ; being shot on location in Detroit , Michigan and Montreal , Quebec , Canada . Adequate production design , as the Gate 38 location was also used in Death Race (2008) as a part of the race track . There is an appropriate as well as colorful cinematography by Christophe Collette . The musician Trevor Morris creates a stirring , rousing soundtrack fitting to moving action . Lavishly produced by Ryan Kavanaugh and the successful French producer/director Luc Besson who formerly produced the French versions , these are the followings : District 13 or Banlieue 13 (original title) (2004) by Pierre Morel with Cyrill Raffaelli , David Belle and District 13: Ultimatum or Banlieue 13: Ultimatum (original title)(2009) by Patrick Alessandrin with Cyril Raffaelli , David Belle and Philippe Torreton.

¨Brick mansions¨ was professionally realized by Camille Delamare though with no originality . Filmmaker Camille gives the action a dance-like quality and the whole movie lasted various months for production , idea , script , casting , filming, etc . Rating : Passable and acceptable , though inferior sequel . well worth seeing , this is an agreeable follow-up . The picture will appeal to explosive action fans .

This English-language remake of the excellent DISTRICT 13 was once again made by the French, albeit shot in Canada this time around. It's pretty much a scene-for-scene remake of the original, although inevitably not as good for reasons which we shall come to. It's only as the running time goes on that crucial differences to the original come to light and unfortunately they're not improvements.

First, let's get the good stuff listed. This is a short, snappy, action thriller, with plenty of shoot-outs and fight scenes to recommend it. The framing is often good and there's a fine sense of setting in the grubby, run-down locations. One of the highlights is the return of David Belle, playing the same character as he did in the original; it's just an annoyance that they decided to dub him rather than have him use his French accented English.

Paul Walker is an odd but obvious choice for Cyril Raffaelli's character in the original, but he's no martial artist so the martial arts fights have been replaced by fist fights and a greater emphasis on car chases. Catalina Denis and Ayisha Issa are the requisite scantily-clad women who hang around to show off their bodies and little more is required of them than that.

The problems are slight at first but begin to mount up as the narrative progresses. First off, the editing is horrendous. The early Parkour scenes are ruined by the refusal to shoot the stunts in single, fluid takes; there's always a dodgy edit halfway through, cutting to a different angle and lessening the impact. Sometimes one of Belle's jumps has three or four edits in it which ruins the whole flow of the thing. BRICK MANSIONS does a lot right, but it gets this crucial editing oh so wrong. I remember in the old days of Jackie Chan's 1980s movies that they sometimes wanted to capture a stunt from different angles, so they would just replay it, which was a much better way of doing it.

The second problem is RZA, playing the drug dealer villain of the piece. RZA is one of those guys who really loves himself and the film-makers seem to love him too, so there's an unbelievable twist at the end which has to be seen to be believed. The ending is frankly laughable in this respect, and a far cry from the power of the original movie. It's the epitome of sanitised, PG-13 entertainment, and I could cry. At least the rest of the film is in the right spirit, so it's only the ending where it falls apart.

Considering I had never heard of this film until about a month before it's release and had low expectations for the movie initially, This movie did surprisingly provide a good hour and a half of B - movie entertainment.I hadn't seen the original film either, So I didn't have any biases to compare it to something else. Now seeing the trailer for district B13, it looks awesome and I'll definitely watch it and than compare the two films. "Brick Mansions" may not have had the best acting or original plot/characters , but it does provide on some inventive and cool action sequences. Parkour, martial arts, fights and eye candy for the guys to look at make the movie a watchable popcorn flick. The stunts and action sequences, especially with David Belle is what stood out and made a fun movie. Only one thing would have made the movie better and that was if it had been rated R. A little more blood and gore shown would have definitely made it a more high impact action flick. Overall, If your looking for a simple and not so demanding action film for a quick 90 mins, I'd recommend it. Take it for what it is and keep your expectations appropriate for a movie like this.

6/10

In case you are wondering, I did see several years ago the French movie "District B13", which is the original movie that lead to this remake. However, I have completely forgotten what it was like - though that fact does make it easier to judge this remake on its own terms instead of comparing it to the original. Despite this perspective, the movie just didn't do it for me. There is a strong whiff of the movie "Escape From New York" here, as well as to a lesser extent "Robocop" and other Hollywood movies, so there isn't a feeling of originality here. The script also suffers from the fact that neither the protagonists or antagonists are that compelling or particularly fleshed out. I know, I know - the script really doesn't matter in a movie like this. What matters is the action and other kinds of eye candy. Well, the movie doesn't do that well on those angles as well. The action (which is so-so at its best) is rapidly edited to try to hide the fact the actors can't pull off multiple moves in the same shot, and obvious stuntmen are used for the few trickier moments. And while the movie was a co-production between two countries (France and Canada), the movie often has a cheap look and feel to it. It's obvious why this movie did unspectacular business at the box office, though why the late Paul Walker apparently saw promise in this project is a question we may never learn the answer to.