I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

This is a fun, relatively forgettable little flick. I saw a documentary on real life cleaners of this sort, and that is a nasty business. Samuel L Jackson does a good job, like he normally does. Cleaner is entertaining, and I think it does a pretty decent job sucking you into the story. Eva Mendes walks around looking like some computer animated hottie (that's just how she looks!) and also gets the job done.OK, let me address the elephant in the living room, here.. How did Renny Harlin go from something easily watchable and entertaining like this, to The Legend of Hercules? I just don't get that. Moving on.Cleaner won't keep you up at night, it probably won't be your all time favorite, but you are entertained while it lasts. Watching Jackson clean and talk about cleaning is pretty fun.

Directed by Renny Harlin, "Cleaner" is slow moving but only 84 min or so runtime crime-drama. It doesn't brake any ground story or plot-wise, but is fairly interestingly narrated and played by protagonist Samuael L Jackson. There seemed to be too much reliance on showing blood and crime scenes as a grotesque sort of mood or setting tool. That kind wears thin being overused in the movie. However there is a decent amount of character development for Harris, Jackson, and Keke Palmer (satisfactorily playing Jackson's on-screen daughter). The main problem though I had towards the end was supposedly Mendez somehow romantically involved with a Harris character almost twice her age - didn't make sense or hold water. Still the movie manages to set a foreboding mood, and makes good of the locations. Music is serviceable as well. Give it a 6/10

I've always liked both Samuel L Jackson and Ed Harris and when I saw this trailed on another DVD, I decided to get it. And I did get my money's worth. There is, however, one caveat and it has nothing to do with Jackson, Harris or any other aspect of the film as film. It is this: when we finally get to the twist, the plot is rather thin gruel, and that is especially irking given the intriguing build-up to the denouement. It could well have been the plot of made-for-TV movie, although Cleaner, of course, has higher production values.Another - slight - gripe is that in odd ways the direction promises more than it delivers. So, for example, we are given definite hints - as when the camera focuses on Jackson's character locking up once he is home - that the chap is overly paranoid about security. Yet in the event he isn't and such shots have no bearing on the film.In a way Cleaner demonstrates the dilemma faced by feature film given the recent substantial rise in quality of TV (think the daddy of them all, The Sopranos, then there's The Wire, Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire and several others). Making a substantial TV series of at least 12 episodes and, if the series if successful, several series now allows directors, writers and producers greater freedom and more time to develop plot and character and gives more room for subtlety (if that's what you like - many don't and merely want as many explosions, car chases and cheesy one-liners as 120 minutes will allow) and it is for them more satisfying. Why shoehorn everything into 90 minutes when you might well be allowed 12 full hours and can give a far more nuanced rendition of your material?So a film such as Cleaner - very well-made, well-acted, imaginatively directed and generally well-crafted - oddly loses out. It comes over, rather unfairly, as a one-trick pony. Having said all that, you won't regret spending your time watching Cleaner, but prepare yourself for a - slight - letdown at the end.

After watching (Die Hard 2 – 1990), (Cutthroat Island – 1995) and (The Long Kiss Goodnight – 1996) you've got to love director (Renny Harlin) as I did. Yet, the man that I loved got disappeared later. No glowing movies such as (Driven – 2001) and (Mindhunters – 2004) are proofs of that regrettably. So, after 20 years of Horror and Action, firstly super then trashy, (Harlin) thought why not changing the whole mood and trying something else with Crime / Mystery / Thriller ?! It's glossy, a bit edgy, centering on a rarely dealt with profession. But it is not as good as any of the important movies that (Harlin) did before, or any solid thriller you can remind either !It's in the script. At the start I noticed how a scene like the one in the bar was crowded of coincidences. (Ed Harris)'s character was awfully obvious. His no role assured that he's here for nothing but being the one who everybody searches for. Then I don't know who messed up the third act like this ? After thrilling 2 acts, the movie turns into another lower one. The problems are many. For instance : the hasty, or forced, matter of (Harris) as an ex-lover of (Eva Mendes) ??! Till the very end we didn't know does the lead have a connection to the murder of his wife's killer in jail, or not ? The easy unethical choice of the lead at the end, with not doing the right thing by telling the police about that dirty cops' book, disappoints a try to give the movie both the ideal hero and the public case.(Sam) can be anything with his charisma and human stock. (Eva) looked pretty, with less cold acting this round. (Ed) was a victim of injustice, or I just see him bigger of these I'm-so-evil kind of roles, which we all know that he makes it for the money, and anyone else him can do it instead of him. (Harlin) led the matters in low-toned no flashy way, using so tight close-ups mostly, achieving intense image and capable suspense. However coincidences, being predictable, fabricated third act.. these are problems that damage any movie, so how about a thriller ?! Hence it couldn't even work as a first-rate TV material, which – in best cases – it was about to be.This is a pilot of good cop-drama series, yet with partly flawed script. In the past, I have always blamed the writers for that. But now, I became so contented that the script is the responsibility of the writer along with the director who ever approved to film it.Dear (Renny), you used to make the brainless action in so brainy way. Come back to that. At least, there, not only the heat was hotter, but no blotches of that kind were allowed to be in the first place ! According to (Cleaner), changing the genre didn't work, and (Renny Harlin) is still disappeared.