I just saw previews for 3 action movies coming out this year. The Bricklayer- an ex-CIA agent who gets re-activated, and apparently uses masonry tools to kill people in his operations, looks to be fighting some sort of criminal empire. The Painter- an ex-CIA agent who paints portraits (and maybe hides secret information in them) who is being hunted by some corrupt govt organization, out to avenge a woman he loved. The Beekeeper- a secret operative, that keeps bees, out to destroy a global scammer conspiracy 'to restore balance to the hive'. They look entertaining. I might even go see The Beekeeper. But it strikes me as weird that 3 movies about secret agents, masquerading as craftsman, bent on revenge against some sort of corrupt establishment are all coming out at the same time. Is this gonna be like a new superhero (or 'antihero') group? They seem REALLY similar... If The Plumber comes out later this year, and its another ex-something-agent movie, I'm moving this to the conspiracy theory forum
It happened upon this shortly after I really got into streaming. I had a free preview of HBO Max, so I watched Westworld. The first season was great. There seems to be this deeper plot that was fascinating. But then it all became a cyberpunk dystopian real-world concept where oppress people were fighting against a supreme power. Then I watched peripheral and it started out and kind of like this rogue concept of these people that would test games and various other technological devices. There seem to be this deeper more interesting plot and became a cyberpunk dystopian real world concept where oppress people were fighting a supreme power. Then I found this show on Netflix called 1899. I took place in 1899 aboard a passenger ship. There's no way this is going to turn into a cyberpunk yada yada yada but it did. That's exactly what it was. I think this happens because there's only a couple riders and they don't really have any talent. They write the same thing over and over and over again. Ever wonder why there's so many remakes why they don't just make new stories with these diverse characters for people to love instead of compare critically to something much better from the past? It's because they don't know how. This Is the participation trophy generation writing things now. That's why it's such ****
I don't think this is as significant as you're perceiving it as. The Bricklayer was apparently first announced in 2011 and is based on a book. The Painter does look like it could be a classic B-Movie copy of a (potentially) successful film to try to jump on the bandwagon. This has long happened in the film industry, with shifting trends and fashions that evolve and are exploited. That said, I suspect that pretty much every year since the 1970s you'd probably be able to find a film based around some former/grizzled operative or special forces type getting caught up or drawn in to some kind of incident. It's hardly an original trope. The Beekeeper has some common elements but seems to be legitimately different, and it's largely confirmation bias leading from the form of the title that is adding to the perception otherwise.
