(2025) Cleaner - Straight Forward Action Thriller Movie that Should Please Fans of Such Genre

There were few movies released in Indonesian cinemas this week wIth one or two that interest me. This was one of them that my wife was willing to accompany me see. So we went to a cinema not far from our home after my wife's event in the morning. All right, let's get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Joey Locke (Daisy Ridley - Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker, Chaos Walking etc) was a former military officer who was discharged and had to work as window cleaner in a high rise building together with another cleaner Noah (Taz Skylar - One Piece live action series etc). One day Joey's autistic older brother Michael (Matthew Tuck) was waiting for her in that building when a group of environment activist led by Marcus (Clive Owen - Gemini Man, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets etc) attacked and kept everyone inside.

As the activists threaten to bomb the building, Joey had no choice but to use her experience to save the people including her brother.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I saw the trailer to this film once or twice before and noticed it had few similarities with the highly popular and successful Die Hard which made me interested. After seeing it though, I felt that apart from people held hostage in a building with one person "on the inside" trying to save them and having a police who supported her, the rest were rather different. However, the difference did not make the movie less entertaining, in fact I thought it was a nice change. After all this is not a remake or reboot of that film.

As a British production, the movie obviously had English cast which would explain my unfamiliarity with most of them except for Daisy Ridley, Taz Skylar and Clive Owen. In addition to those I mentioned above, there were also other support characters like the police Inspector Claire Humm (Ruth Gemmel - Bridgerton TV series etc), the Milton brothers who owned the building Geoffrey (Rufus Jones - Hunderby TV series etc) & Gerald (Lee Boardman - Rome TV series etc), the hacker Zee (Flavia Watson) and several others. The star of this film was certainly Daisy Ridley who actually surprised me with her ability to do various action stunts, particularly the hand to hand fights, even though some might be using body double.

For an action thriller, my wife and I thought this movie was enjoyable. Despite a rather slow early part with quite detailed background on few of the characters (personally for me, it took too long to show the Miltons), in general the action really made up for it. The intensity was strongly felt and the old school practical effects (not CGI) was definitely a plus point as the action sequence felt better and more realistic. The good sound system in the studio also added entertainment value cause it was hard not to miss on the sound of explosions and bullets piercing and so on.

This movie was directed by Martin Campbell who was experienced in directing action films such as The Protégé, Casino Royale, Vertical Limit and few others. This might explain the quality of the action itself. The story was not hard to comprehend, without any romance and not complex at all which should please fans of straight forward action genre. If there is anything that both of us felt a little off was one scene where Michael's voice could be heard by Joey from outside which we thought would be better if it was made muffled. But it was such small detail that it did not have impact on overall film. Btw, this is an R rated movie and given 17+ rating in here, so definitely not suitable for children. I read that critics were rather mixed with the movie, but for us, we were entertained. Too bad though as it might not be positive sign for its box office performance.

Overall this might not win the hearts of everyone looking for high quality character/story driven action. However its simplicity and old school action scenes with a villain that audience love to hate certainly would delight action fans. Although it is not Hollywood's big budget blockbuster movie with A-List stars, it is definitely not B movie either. So if you are looking for such traits in a movie having duration of only 98 minutes (including closing credits), I am sure you would enjoy it like my wife and I did. It's currently playing in all cinema chains in Indonesia. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars