Movie Review: The Cleaner

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A fun, if familiar action flick. 

While the storyline of the movie borrows from quite a few other action films (especially Die Hard (1988)), it surprisingly works. The main reason for this is Daisy Ridley. Frankly I have not always been the biggest fan of her in her past roles. I found her forgettable in the Star Wars sequel trilogy for instance. That was why I was so amazed at how much I liked her here. I was surprised at just how good of an action star she can be. She is charismatic, fun, likable and handles the action scenes extremely well. I can honestly see her becoming the next big star of these types of action movies and I wouldn't mind that at all. Not that she is the only thing I enjoyed about this film. The action scenes are a lot of fun. They are very well choreographed and just the right amount of over the top. With a filmography that includes such movies as GoldenEye (1995), The Mask of Zorro (1998) and Casino Royale (2006), director Martin Campbell knows his well very well around an action scene. This movie also benefits from a strong villain, who is easy to understand but easy to hate. There is even some real heart here with the main hero's relationship with her brother. 

Unfortunately, the environmental message is very unsubtle and heavy-handed, not really saying anything anyone watching hasn't heard before. While the main character, her brother and the villain were all good characters, all the other characters are very one note. 

This may not be original in anyway, but it is a really fun action flick.