Dearest Blog, yesterday it was off to the cinema with a heavy heart to see Paul Walker's final completed film, Brick Mansions.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailer.
A Detroit cop goes undercover in the city's most dangerous housing project, called Brick Mansions, a neighborhood so crime-ridden it's been walled off from the rest of the city.
Brick Mansions easily could have been a straight-to-DVD release, but for an attempt to cash in on Paul Walker's untimely passing. You'll find better performances in a third-grade Christmas pageant, though that's only partially the fault of the actors. The rest of the blame can be fairly divided among a predictable story, ridiculous dialogue, and broad, ugly stereotypes. Stylized action sequences are interesting to a point, but even in a relatively short film they manage to drag on a bit. The movie's dopey humor is ill-suited to the grim backdrop of a Detroit that might be even more depressing than the real thing, and any teeth the movie could have had were knocked out by the filmmakers' obvious determination to water things down enough to secure a PG13 rating.
Having said all that, Brick Mansions is salvaged somewhat by the fact that its ridiculousness seems deliberate. With the right mindset, it's actually kinda fun, and--if only they'd gone for the R rating--it might have been genuinely entertaining.
Brick Mansions runs 90 minutes and is rated PG13 for "frenetic gunplay, violence and action throughout, language, sexual menace, and drug material."
Brick Mansions is predictable, by-the-book action, littered with cliches and offensive stereotypes, but it can still be a good time if you let it.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Brick Mansions gets four and a half.
Until next time...
Nahhh...just messin' with ya!
