Mike McCahill 

Brick Mansions review – Besson parkour pugilists fall short on moves

Luc Besson relocates French thriller District 13 to Detroit, but the film is notable mainly for Paul Walker's last completed role
  
  

Brick Mansions Paul Walker, David Belle, Kwasi Songui and RZA
'Moderate dynamism': (from left) Paul Walker, David Belle, Kwasi Songui and RZA in Brick Mansions. Photograph: Philippe Bosse/AP Photograph: Philippe Bosse/AP

Visionary-turned-pablum-producer Luc Besson here relocates 2004's nifty parkour-based actioner District 13 to a crime- and cliche-ridden Detroit, where cop Paul Walker (in his last completed role) and the original's David Belle are pursuing a megaton bomb, helpfully fitted with digital countdown clock. A thousand cuts per minute aim to speed us mindlessly past Besson's usual chauvinism, political cynicism and dubious colour-coding – as in Taken, non-Caucasians are overwhelming villainous – while also chopping short exactly those moves this setup was meant to showcase. The Raid 2 got most of its kicks in situ; this deploys a lot of edit-suite trickery to generate only moderate dynamism.

 

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