Cleaner (2025)
Action and drama and another movie you would whole heartedly expect to hear “It’s like Die Hard except…” when referencing it. Why? Well, there is a skyscraper, and there is bad guys with guns, so much like every video game system is a “Nintendo”, every skyscraper action flick is a Die hard. This time around though, we get a female lead in the form of that one Jedi lady. Let’s figure out if movies titled after jobs can still be fun, tonight’s flick is Cleaner.
We start with some quick informative backstory action - a young girl, climbing all over the kitchen like some kind of floor is lava champion, while her dad is pulling a raging abuser in the other room over her so far unseen brother. Fast forward to her waking up and being super late for work, only to have her day start even rougher when the care provider for her brother decides he needs to go - seems they fully believe he hacked into and is spreading confidential information about their money usage. She has to take him to her work though, where he needs to hang around for a few hours while she tends to the windows of the skyscraper she works at. Introductions to various characters arise, and by the time our plot with the activists kicks in we will already hate the vast majority of every person that’s been shown on screen. Who will make it out alive - and will we be happy about it?
Actors do a fine job here, although I feel that there will probably be a conflict for a lot of folks where they are going to dislike characters so much they’ll say the acting isn’t great. I’m no expert, so i can’t speak to the power levels of the acting job on the autistic brother character, but for most the rest of the actors they are doing a fine job of getting me to dislike their characters. Nothing is really so much over-the-top per say, outside of maybe our volatile baddie, who isn’t necessarily feeling like he’s pulling a classic crazy Nic Cage as much as his character just seems a bit big in comparison to most every other semi-reserved feeling actor in the movie. Either way, mostly everyone does a pretty decent job with what they got, and at least from an entertainment side it’s solid enough that I don’t find myself bored from phoned in performances, or feeling like people are trying way to hard.
Characters are somewhat meh here - if some of my earlier comments weren’t making it apparent. Now, I don’t feel like it’s not by design, I think much like a slasher flick I’m not supposed to like the vast majority of characters here. The idea is the fancy pants inside the building are supposed to be sleazy money-grubbers with comeuppance around the corner. The activists, despite their “for the good” mentality also are holding people hostage, so not exactly the best moral grounds there either, right? Our main character is kind of set up to be a bit of a let down - not specifically taking care of her brother, and the whole late to work and “left the military” bits - and her brother is designed to be difficult but quirky as most any movie character with some form of autism ends up being played out. For a good chunk of the movie, the only person you might find yourself actually liking is the head activist, because that smooth Clive Owen man of integrity and “I said no killing” makes him seem like he’s doing the right thing and still has morals to stick to. You do warm up some to the Daisy’s character and her brother as time goes on and they get more time together though - so there is some development in the character department for the drama-type folks.
Charger dilemma
It’s a movie of modern times, so what can I really say about costumes? They do their job of feeling right, but also in turn really don’t stand out. Of all the stuff in the movie, you might get some eye-catching with the bomb vests and all their wires, but largely the one thing that stands out the most to me is the brother character’s Thor hammer he carries around the entire movie. That’s what that downside to modern flicks are when it comes to that - it’s hard to really stand out when it is constrained by normal world you know? Still, the addition of the outside of the building adds a little bit of flair to the setting - given it’s not just all inside. That said, some of it feels like some obvious green screen at times, while other times it looks really good and I imagine at least some of it had to be on a practical set. Inside doesn’t get a ton of changes visually - the main room, a hotel room, a utility room, and a security room are the main thing you’ll be seeing past that exterior window - but in fairness it’s not the kind of movie that really requires a ton of variance in setting - it feels a bit like someone decided to mash Die Hard together with that movie where the girls are stuck on top of the old radio tower.
There is some action in the movie, but most of it is towards the back end. That leads me to believe folks looking more for drama then stand-up gunfights would appreciate it more than others. Of course, for the drama to really work well it’s going to need you wanting to invest in the characters, and I can’t necessarily feel that I can in fairness say that people are going to love them enough to be invested. Perhaps the folks more into higher-level concepts like environmental activism or moral grounds or how far is too far might be more the targeted audience in that regard. I mean, either way I went in expecting an action movie and I wasn’t horribly put off or bored with any of it, so I don’t really think it failed as a movie or anything - just not entirely sure where to place the expectations for someone to max their enjoyment. Perhaps the thriller angle would be the biggest drive - it’s largely a thriller that leads into a bit of action, with an underlying drama line.
Sound is alright. Mix is fine, lines are always audible, and you get a good deal of accents coming out - the fun part about the British is they can so often pull off such a good American English that you never expect them to sound so rightfully British when they don’t suppress it - acting, am I right? Soundtrack wise, I can leave it. It does the common soundtrack scene support, but the only song I remember isn’t even actually remembering the song at all so much as it is me wondering why we had such a long pan out to a pop song at the end of the movie - largely because pop isn’t my thing. Still, there really isn’t much to hate against this department for - it’s all done fine, sometimes with some good deliveries for humor or endearing chemistry moments.
Bird strike on 57
I was wondering why the movies sale and rental price were both just five bucks. I don’t know if I’d call it being worried about it - I’m just always curious about sales. Here, I think I kind of get it. It’s the sort of movie that isn’t bad, most folks would be perfectly fine watching it on television but wouldn’t care to go and see it in the theaters, and inevitably do nothing but compare it to the original Die Hard movie, which most of us would agree is pretty stacked. At worst I’d call it mediocre - largely on account of not having a ton of likeable characters - but it also doesn’t feel like it drags that much or wastes your time all that much. It’s fun enough that I still enjoyed myself, and although there are a hundred percent some stupid moves made by the folks in the movie, there’s also at least one time where they will do exactly what you are thinking when you talk to the movie and go “why doesn’t someone just do X.” I love it when a movie gets smart like that - and I’ve spent 5 bucks on far worse things, like that vending machine soda at work. Certainly not making me want to walk on the street by any super tall buildings soon however.