The Bricklayer (Renny Harlin, 2024)
Directed by Renny Harlin, The Bricklayer is an entertaining action-thriller, that is helped along by the chemistry between leads Aaron Eckhart and Nina Dobrev.
The Bricklayer is based on novel by Noah Boyd, which was the pseudonym of the late Paul Lindsay, who used to be an FBI agent before he became a thriller writer.
It tells the age-old story of a former CIA-agent Steve Vail (Eckhart) who has taken up his former occupation (as a bricklayer, no less) but is called back into action for the legendary One Last Job, with the assistance of the analyst (Dobrev) in her first job in the field, to track down a presumed dead rogue agent (Clifton Collins, jr), while also investigating a potential mole within the agency.
If you yawn because you’ve seen this movie before, I can’t blame you, but if at times you need your nineties styled Bond-lite action fix (like I obviously do) then you could do a lot worse than see this either in cinemas or on demand.
Harlin keeps the pedal to the medal, the story has enough twists (some a bit more predictable than others) to keep you guessing and the chemistry between the robust Eckhart and the plucky Dobrev is surprisingly good.
There are also some amusing supporting turns from the likes of Tim Blake Nelson (as Vail’s super-cynical boss) and Ilfenesh Hadera (as Vail’s former lover), to add to lively mix of action, intrigue and (occasional) romance.
The story mostly takes place in sunny Greece, and yes, Vail does bring his bricklayer toolkit along for the ride, cause, you know, those tools always come in handy.
I’m not sure this movie will be successful enough to start a Bricklayer-franchise, but at least it puts Eckhart up there with Liam Neeson and Gerard Butler as the go-to actors for the (often underrated) dad-movie genre.
It is also a welcome return to form for Harlin, who knows how to spin a good yarn, and who made his name in Hollywood with movies like Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and Deep Blue Sea.
Yes, the famous Fin made a historic flop with Cutthroat Island, but with The Long Kiss Goodnight (which also starred his then-wife Geena Davis) he has at least one bona fide action classic to his name.
The Bricklayer doesn’t quite scale those dizzy heights of excellence, but has enough entertainment value to suggest that the 64-year old director is getting his groove back.
Why not give this man a bigger budget and let him loose on Hollywood again? The results could still be spectacular!
Note: The Bricklayer is in cinemas in some countries, while available online in others.