Brick Mansions (2014)

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General		Extras
Category	Crime	Featurette-Promotional
Rating
Year Of Production	2014
Running Time	86:35
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Camille Delamarre
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	David Belle RZA Catalina Dennis Paul Walker
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Back in 2004, Luc Besson wrote and produced a French film called District B13 or Banlieue 13 which featured parkour, a discipline which involves moving from one place to another in the most efficient way possible using only human driven propulsion. This is now well known and has been seen in many advertisements, movies and television shows. At the time it was relatively new on the big screen and the film, a futuristic action adventure, was successful in France and around the world. That film has recently been remade in Canada as Brick Mansions but still with Besson as the screenwriter and producer. This time the film was directed by a long-term Besson collaborator Camille Delamarre, who has edited a number of Besson's earlier films. It has been made in English and was the last acting role completed by Paul Walker before his untimely death. One of the stars of the previous film and parkour inventor, David Belle, reprises his role here as the reformed criminal trying to straighten out his neighbourhood.

     The story is set in a dystopian near future (2018) in the city of Detroit. The city has decided that the poorest sections of the city, known as the projects or Brick Mansions needed to be walled off from the rest of the city to protect the other inhabitants. Essentially, the area inside the walls is nearly lawless with drug dealing and other criminal activities running rife. The self-proclaimed Mayor of Brick Mansions, drug dealer Tremaine (RZA) rules the area through fear and violence. One man, Lino (David Belle) tries to disrupt his drug dealing by stealing some of his drugs and destroying them. This, of course, attracts Tremaine's attention and he tries to kill Lino however his parkour skills make him very hard to catch. Tremaine and his gang decide to kidnap Lino's old girlfriend, Lola (Catalina Dennis) in the hope that this will lure him out. Their plan succeeds, however Lino soon gets the upper hand and ends up being able to deliver Tremaine to one of the guard posts surrounding Brick Mansions. Of course, this does not work out for Lino and due to a corrupt commander he ends up in jail instead of Tremaine, charged with murder.

     Another story strand is underway on the other side of the wall with the Mayor of Detroit wanting to redevelop the land under Brick Mansions which means he needs to arrange for the removal of the buildings and people who are there now. Working with the military he arranges to allow a neutron bomb to be stolen by Tremaine's gang and taken back to Brick Mansions. Appearing to be concerned for the safety of the citizens, the mayor arranges for an undercover cop, Damien Collier (Paul Walker) to team up with Lino and go into Brick Mansions to defuse the bomb. Can they succeed in defeating Tremaine who has other plans for the bomb and also work out what is really going on?

     This film is a pretty average action film with little to make it stand out from the crowd. The story is frankly preposterous and this is not helped by the indifferent acting from all concerned. The plot is clichéd at every turn. There are certainly some impressive parkour and car chase sequences and things move along briskly with the film not outstaying its welcome at less than 90 minutes. If you feel like a dumb action film there are certainly dumber ones than this but it is definitely not a must see.

Video

     The video quality is excellent for DVD but not without some minor issues.

     The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

     The picture was very sharp and clear for DVD. Shadow detail was a generally very good.

     The colour is excellent.

     There is some mild motion blur and a little aliasing at times.

     There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired which were clear and easy to read.

     There is no obvious layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio quality is very good.

     This disc contains an English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1 plus an English Audio Descriptive track in Dolby Digital 2.0.

     Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout.

     The music is appropriate to the style of film without being anything special.

     The surround speakers were active constantly creating a good sound field of directional effects, gunfire, music and voices.

    The subwoofer was also well used supporting the action scenes and music.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     One small extra.

Menu

     The menu features music and motion.

Brick Mansions Parkour Featurette (1:45)

     Promo video of some parkour which is not included in the film itself, probably would have been better of it was. Set to rap music.

    This film is available locally and in other regions on Blu-ray and DVD and the Region 1 DVD release seems to be the same.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall