The Bricklayer

What happened to movie producers? Does anyone care about the movies they create anymore? There was a time when casting a role in a movie came down to the best actors you could get. With that said, I dont think Nina Dobrev was a good casting choice.

This movie is yet another cookie cutter secret assassin flick. There is not a whole lot of chemistry between the 2 main characters and I think Nina Dobrev is partly to blame. It doesnt seem like she's putting much effort into her role in this movie and it shows! Aaron is a good actor but when you pair a good one with one that's not putting in the effort, it brings the whole movie down. The Bricklayer is another movie that I will say is not the worst i've seen, but it is not very good either.

Action movie with average cast, good photography, great stunts, unusual location (Thessaloniki, Greece), good music and some nice dialogue (here and there).

Script, alas, had some really annoying aspects... for example: who would like to watch a man in his 50s, alone, defeating with his bare hands 30 thugs, most of them armed, one after the other, in a same scene?

Movie reality is cinematic, ok... but there are rules nonetheless: I'd say that 2 thugs should be the edge of 'realism', up to 5 you must be funny, plausible and it remains however debatable, 6 is reserved for James Bond and higher figures definitely require superheroes.

Another (violated) rule of mine says that a thug easily defeated in a previous scene cannot have such a come back and beat you to a pulp in a following sequence... anyway... that said, it was not boring: I reached the end titles in good spirits and it made me kill some time.

And I always liked Aaron Eckhart.

Enjoy.

The film is still running through my mind. While I enjoyed the film, the director used every bloody cliche in the book. Setting scenes to give the viewers a comparison impression between James Bond, and The Bricklayer. You might almost thinking they were trying to create a "Brand" so that there could be future Bricklayer films. Transparent hopes of more, when the film has so many flaws may be doomed to disappointment. Many of the scenes also had actors either posing for the scene, or either looking at the camera, or every other way except at the camera. Some of them near broke their necks avoiding looking at the camera, even when they were in very abnormal postures. The film editing was sloppy, even when a better edit would have avoided revealing the more obvious flaws.

This should have been much better, good cast, decent acting, but badly put together, and with the Worst sound staging I've ever heard in a "proper" movie ..

Very much a tale of 2 halves, the production, and production values are fine, top tier as you would expect from a seasoned cast & production...

But then when it came to the post production editing/sound boarding and the nuts & bolts of putting something like this together, it was rushed and thrown out the door... Studio problems, a Hard deadline, I dunno, but it was done very poorly, imagine doing a job for the first time, once it's done your proud and happy of what you made, then years down the line, once you've really learned your craft, you look back at it and can't believe how bad a job you did compared to how you would do it today...

That's how I felt watching this.... Started by a top dollar production company, then put out the door by the local youth club...

It's genuinely interesting to watch just for the flaws, and to try to figure out where it went pear shaped ......

I don't understand who green-lights these movies. Did no one read the script before they started shooting? This is just so freaking mediocre.

Writing: the story is derivative as hell and dumb AF, there is no character development at all, and the dialogue is uncomfortably cringeworthy.

Acting: Aaron Eckhart is a good actor, but in this movie, no one delivers a remotely decent performance. Especially Nina Dobrev, who at least in this film, brings no range whatsoever, no chemistry with the lead actor and a truly amateur performance. The support cast is no better.

Directing: a disjointed and incoherent mess with nothing but a few passable action sequences to pacify the tedium.

I strongly encourage the writers to hang up the gloves. When ChatGPT can do a better job than you do, it's time to look into a different line of work.