Master of thrills: Exploring Renny Harlin's impact on action cinema

There are many reasons why this one's worth a look. It's a Millennium Media production to begin with, and that means a specific brand of action movie. They're the production company that gave us The Expendables (2010), The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017), and Olympus Has Fallen (2013). There are hundreds of bang-up movies to their name that date right back to the late 1980s.

Other reasons for watching The Bricklayer are the cast, which also includes Tim Blake Nelson and Clifton Collins Jr, and the fantastically raw action sequences and production design. The movie's plot moves like a freight train as Eckhart's ex-CIA operative is reactivated to find the mastermind who framed the agency for a series of journalist assassinations.

But the best reason of all for adding The Bricklayer to your watch list is director Renny Harlin, a director whose career spans four decades and boasts some of the most iconic action movies of all time. His visionary approach to storytelling has captivated audiences worldwide, earning him a reputation as one of the industry's most prolific directors.

So, let's take a look at a handful of other movies that should not only convince you to give The Bricklayer your attention, but also inspire a total Renny Harlin movie marathon.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

We're kicking it off with A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master because although it's not an action movie, it marks an important moment in Harlin's career, whereby he proved his naysayers wrong when the odds were stacked against him. Not only is this a fantastic entry into the iconic horror movie franchise, but it's also the highest-grossing instalment of the original canon.

Despite having directed two low-budget horror movies, including the vastly underrated Prison (1987), there was little confidence in Harlin's ability to craft a successful sequel. In fact, he only landed the job because of his refusal to take “no” for an answer and the fact that the studio was caught in a pickle with such a speedy turnaround deadline.

Their gamble on Harlin paid off, and the film was a global box office hit. With a well-balanced combination of horror and humour, mixed with an ambitious production design and outrageous set-pieces, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is considered a favourite amongst fans, and kept both Harlin and Freddy Krueger in business for years to come.

Die Hard 2 (1990)

Hot off of the success of Elm Street 4, Harlin found himself at the helm of one of the biggest action movies of the year, Die Hard 2: Die Harder. In actuality, he had already shot the then-unreleased cult comedy The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, starring Andrew Dice Clay, and was headhunted by 20th Century Fox when the original Die Hard director John McTiernan was committed to making The Hunt for Red October at the time.

The bigwigs at Fox were impressed with Harlin's footage from Ford Fairlane and extended the offer to make one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year. The film exceeded all expectations and significantly outperformed the original 1988 movie. It has earned itself a fanbase of its own, with some considering it to be as good, if not superior, to the original... but we wouldn't go that far.

Cliffhanger (1993)

Harlin was the king of the '90s and his collaboration with Sylvester Stallone on Cliffhanger proved to be another big bank day for the director, who had become one of Hollywood's hottest commodities.

The action thriller also starred John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, and Janine Turner and was set in the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, where a former military intelligence operative stages a daring heist of a crashed U.S. Treasury plane.

Stallone's professional mountain climbing character is the only hope of rescuing the villain's hostages. It's a gripping, edge-of-the-seat thriller that blew up the global box office and has gone on to become one of the most memorable action movies of the '90s.

Trivia: A sequel titled Cliffhanger 2: The Dam was planned in the mid '90s, revolving around a terrorist plot to blow up the Hoover Dam, but the project fell into development hell. Several attempts have since been made to produce a follow-up, with an upcoming legacy sequel being developed with Stallone's Balboa Productions company.

Cutthroat Island (1995)

OK, so we know that Cutthroat Island was a bomb. In fact, the Guinness Book of World Records lists it as the biggest box office bomb of all time. But we think that it was ahead of its time, and to paraphrase the immortal words of Marty McFly, “Folks weren't ready for it, but their kids will love it!”

The truth is that following a few sunken attempts in the '80s, pirate movies weren't popular, and audiences didn't know what to make of such a big swashbuckling high-seas adventure. Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean was still eight years away, and there was nothing substantial to compare it with.

Although the film suffered from a trouble production and was re-written and recast several times over we think that the proof is in the pudding. Cutthroat Island has one of the most lavish and elaborate production designs of all time and plays like the classic sea-faring adventures of old. Geena Davis (who was married to Harlin at the time) stars Morgan Adams, the daughter of a pirate who follows in her father's footsteps in search of the missing pieces of a treasure map.

Time has been kind and Cutthroat Island has been rediscovered by new generations who have grown up with Pirates of the Caribbean and crave more. In fact, the film's newfound popularity led to Studio Canal releasing it fully remastered onto 4K. It's well worth reappraisal.