The Bricklayer

 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, 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.

I’m not sure this movie will be successful enough to start a franchise, but at least it’s a welcome return to form for Harlin, who know 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 David) 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!









Reacties

Een reactie posten

Populaire posts van deze blog

Poor Things

Afbeelding
  Yorghos Lanthimos is one of the most interesting directors working today. His latest movie, the widely acclaimed Poor Things, is a steampunk science fiction fantasy, spearheaded by a fearless performance by Emma Stone. Nominated for eleven Oscars, Poor Things is a critical darling that by the end of its theatrical run will probably have a worldwide gross of over 100 million dollars, showing sceptics that its possible for artistic risk takers to have it all. The movie, adapted by Tim McNamara, from the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, starts out in an alternative version of Victorian London. Emma Stone plays Bella Baxter, a suicidal young woman, who is brought back to life by her own Dr. Frankenstein. He is called Godwin Baxter (the great Willem Dafoe), so Bella appropriately refers to him as God.  As Bella grows up from a mental infant to a somewhat more mature young woman, she is befriended first by Godwin’s assistant Max ( Ramy Youssef), who wants to marry her, then by Godwin’...
Meer lezen

Challengers

Afbeelding
  Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers is both a thrilling romantic comedy and a highly appealing sports drama, anchored by a star turn by Zendaya, that confirms her status as a bonafide modern day movie star. The two-time Emmy winner (both times for Euphoria), who also starred in various Spider-man and Dune movies, plays a tennis prodigy called Tashi Donaldson, whose career is dramatically cut short by a cruel knee injury.  Because, as she admits herself, her only talent is hitting a ball, she becomes the coach of her husband Art (Mike Faust), who goes on to win six grand slam titles, and who only needs to win the US Open to complete his career slam. Unfortunately, his form deserts him and Tashi advises him to compete in the lowly New Rochelle challenger tournament to get his confidence back. It’s there however, that he has to face, both on and off court, his former best friend Patrick (Josh O’Connor), a former Junior Open winner but now a down on his luck tennis pro, who also share...
Meer lezen

Civil War

Afbeelding
Alex Garland’s ‘near fiction’ action epic Civil War  ventures deep into the heart of American darkness. It tells the story of a group of semi-embedded journalists from New York to Washington D.C. to capture one last interview with the President of the United States before he himself may be captured by the Western Forces of Texas and California whose revolution is gaining momentum. That’s basically all you need to know about the plot. And besides, Garland doesn’t tell us much more. Civil War takes place in a future America where words like ‘Democrats’ or ‘Republicans’ seem to have lost all meaning. Or as one soldier puts it halfway through the movie: ‘There are some guys out there trying to kill us. And we are trying to kill them.’ Even though the movie is full of violent war scenes, Garland mainly focuses on our little group of four protagonists: Kirsten Dunst plays Lee Smith, a very experienced war photographer, who has seen it all and is nearing the end of her tether. She works f...
Meer lezen