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| One of the dark posters for Renny Harlin's Cleaner |
QUICK REVIEW:
An ex-cop runs a cleaning company, which specializes in cleaning after deaths. He now takes an assignment to clean up after a murder that makes him start his own private investigation. - But his own past isn't spotless either ...
The excellent cast of Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained (2012)), Robert Forster (Jackie Brown (1997)), Ed Harris (A History of Violence (2005)), Eva Mendes (The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)) and Luis Guzmán (The Last Stand (2013)) make this mediocre story worth seeing.
It is directed by Finnish Hollywood director Renny Harlin (Deep Blue Sea (1999)) and written by Matthew Aldrich (El Patron (2016), pre-production). Some of Harlin's flash-editing ploys hit home, and others seem ridiculous.
Cleaner seems like commissioned work without any particular heart or engagement behind its storytelling, (which is a recurring problem for Harlin, whose career counts several films with similar issues.)
The ending SPOILER has a forced narration with lots of heavy-duty value concepts overlain, which Cleaner as a film just can't hold.
Harlin is premiering an ambitious new film later this year, Skiptrace with Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville, which I am sure it is hoped can become a cross-cultural (US-Chinese) smash.
Related posts:
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
Watch the trailer for the DVD release here
Cost: Estimated 25 mil. $
Box office: 4 mil. $ (foreign)
= Mega-flop
[Cleaner was released straight-to-DVD in the US, where it sold 400k units, accruing 7.8 mil. $ to the financial shipwreck the movie became. Harlin's career has suffered, and he has had to get by doing b-movies and TV since. Skiptrace is the major movie that has to prove his worth in the new Hollywood order, or perhaps cast him out for good.]
What do you think of Cleaner?
Any thoughts on Harlin's career?
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