Brick Mansions (PG 13)
PUBLISHED ONApril 25, 2014 12:22 AMByJason Johnson
SINGAPORE - I think most of us took Paul Walker for granted, but now that he's gone, it has become painfully clear what a wonderful performer he was.
In Brick Mansions, he stars as Damien, a policeman who volunteers to enter a walled-off ghetto to retrieve a weapon of mass destruction that has fallen into the hands of a gangster (RZA).
He teams up with Lino (David Belle), a parkour expert who wants to rescue his girlfriend from the same thug.
The adaptation of the French film District 13 features some thrilling action, and Walker is a convincing butt-kicker.
What might surprise you is the flick's heart. Brick Mansions shows a lot of sensitivity towards the ghetto denizens, taking care to humanise characters that might be portrayed as cardboard villains in lesser films.
Of course the main thing that comes through is Walker's easy-going goodness.
This article was published on April 23 in The New Paper.
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