Film

Brick Mansions

Name: Brick Mansions
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Released: 2014
Cast: Paul Walker, David Belle, RZA, Robert Maillet, Carlo Rota

Brick Mansions is a stylish, high-octane action film set in a dystopian Detroit where parkour and hand-to-hand combat drive the narrative. It's built for pure entertainment: explosions, chase sequences, clever set pieces. If you want two hours of kinetic thrills with a buddy-cop dynamic and minimal pretension, this delivers. Paul Walker's final lead role adds poignancy.

TMDb rating

3.0

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The spiritual predecessor: parkour-powered action in a gritty, walled-off district of Paris. David Belle—who invented parkour—stars alongside Jean-Paul Gaultier's protégé in a film that inspired Brick Mansions directly. Raw, inventive, genuinely thrilling.

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Simultaneous release, same DNA: a constrained geography, hand-to-hand combat choreography so precise it becomes art, and a cop-versus-criminals plot that's just a frame for the physicality. Gareth Evans' direction is masterful.

But Brutally violent. If you're squeamish about bone-breaking and blood, this will overwhelm you. Also slower-paced than Brick Mansions—it builds, rather than sprints.

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

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It's the version of this story told by the creators of parkour themselves. Brick Mansions remakes District B13 for American audiences; watching the original franchise continue sideways shows what the creators chose to do next.

The actual sequel to District B13, made five years before Brick Mansions, featuring the original parkour cast in even more ambitious action sequences. If you loved the predecessor, seeing it evolved by the people who invented it—rather than Americanized—is essential.

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The DNA of Brick Mansions: walled-off zone, expendable hero, ticking clock, minimal dialogue action scenes. But where Brick Mansions is a sprint, this is a slow burn that builds mood. It's the same engine in a completely different register.

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But 1981 pacing and effects. It moves slowly by modern standards and the technological spectacle feels quaint. If you need constant kinetic energy, the first half will test your patience.

Attack the Block2011

Both films trust a neighborhood and its inhabitants rather than external authority. Both center on marginalized characters protecting their own turf. But where Brick Mansions is slick and cynical, this is rough and hopeful—proof that the same story can be told with radically different values.

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