The Bricklayer – Another Serviceable Action Thriller

This year appears to be the year of Renny Harlin, as six films he directed could possibly be released by the end of the year. The Bricklayer follows a rogue insurgent blackmailing the CIA by assassinating foreign journalists and making it appear that the agency is responsible for the killings. When other nations begin turning against the U.S., the CIA lures their most brilliant and rebellious operative Steve Vail (Eckhart) out of retirement. Using his elite and deadly set of skills, Vail is tasked with helping clear the agency’s name, forcing him to confront his checkered past while unraveling an international conspiracy. As a film, it is a serviceable and entertaining enough action vehicle for Eckhart but it is also very derivative of countless other, and better action films.

Now Eckhart isn’t someone one would typically associate with a badass or gruff action lead, but he actually does well here as he fully commits himself to the physicality and everything else required from him. Solid as ever, he’s clearly doing a lot of his own stunts in camera which thankfully aren’t distracting or poor. Dobrev seems like an odd lead for a film like this, but she, as Kate, does well enough and has solid chemistry with Eckhart. While their characters aren’t anything special, it was enjoyable seeing them bond and their fun dynamic grow over the course of the film. Collins Jr., as Radek, doesn’t get much to do as one of the film’s villains, however, he once again makes the most out of an underwritten but fun role. The scenes between Vail and Radek are easily among the best in the film. That being said, it would also have been better served by having more of them to further flesh out each character. The action can be a little shaky, but for the most part, are decently entertaining and well-filmed while never boring or dull to watch.

As decent as the film is, it’s heavily flawed and forgettable. The story tying its action sequences together is not only generic, unexciting, and very run-of-the-mill but it’s also hard to care about anything going on outside of the action. Meanwhile, it is utterly predictable and offers up very little in the way of surprises outside of a few late story reveals. The writing isn’t very good either and filled with several contrivances and cringeworthy dialogue that appears to be meant to come off as clever and ironic but instead does the exact opposite. While the action is decent in the moment, it also pales in comparison to some of the better action films of the past few years if one happens to make the mistake of comparing it to them, and its smaller budget doesn’t do it any favours especially regarding its thankfully seldom-used shaky visual effects. The film truly comes alive during its action though still feels like it is merely going through the motions in all other areas. On top of everything else, it also has no business being any more than 90-minutes long and the fact that it stands at just under 2-hours hurts the pacing quite and a bit and as a result, causes scenes to drag or feel entirely unnecessary.

At the end of the day, The Bricklayer is a lot better than what one would expect and is also one of Renny Harlin’s better films of the past several years but that’s not saying much. The film simply fails to strive to be anything more than okay, which isn’t exactly a glowing compliment. Aaron Eckhart and Nina Dobrev do help to keep things watchable, and the action entertains, but outside of those, there is very little to genuinely recommend.

still courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/