I’m just going to start by saying that this movie is a really, REALLY bad remake of the original french production: “Banlieue 13” (District 13). Or maybe the Americans were going for a parody feel with this one? One thing is clear and I will repeat myself: This movie is really bad!

In the original, Paul Walker’s character, Damien, seems to have more skill with hand to hand combat. Walker isn’t a martial artist and the fight scenes he has are your typical American cop type of fights. The one thing Paul Walker did was act. He and Belle were the only actors who can actually act. What I mean by that is the secondary characters were horrendous! B acting at best; I’ve seen better on the Scify channel.

Brick Mansion movie The film is just terribly mediocre though. Even if you haven’t seen the original this remake is based on, the movie just felt like a Video On Demand action movie, than something worth to put in theaters whether it had Walker or not. The plot is pedestrian, RZA as a villain is both laughable and lame, some painfully obvious CG, and just a lack of structure connecting the dots. Plus, that ending was really corny.

The only reason you should watch this movie is not because is Paul Walker’s last movie, but because it is David Belle’s latest. Belle, founder of Parkour, we already saw his amazing stunts in both District 13 movies, along with Cyril Raffaelli excellent action scenes where it shows all the training he’s had with acrobatics, shotokan karate and wushu. Except for Belle’s updated stunts, there’s nothing else to see here.

Over-explained characters, “softened” plot, sympathetic villains; if you want to know how Hollywood dumbs down movies there’s nothing better than to watch this and the original District 13 back to back. From the use of camera speed to the editing of fight scenes, the original french movies are far superior.


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