'Cleaner' review: Movie squeegees the glass, sees 'Die Hard' reflected back
After the resounding success of “Die Hard” in 1988, Hollywood bonked us on the head with a series of clones and knockoffs, including but not limited to “Speed” (“Die Hard” on a Bus), “Under Siege” (“Die Hard” on a Battleship), “The Rock” (“Die Hard” on an Island), “Cliffhanger” (“Die Hard” on a Mountain), “Air Force One” (“Die Hard” on a Plane), “Olympus Has Fallen” (“Die Hard” in the White House) and “Skyscraper” (“Die Hard” in a Similarly Tall Building, but with Dwayne Johnson and Lots of CGI).
Now comes “Cleaner,” and to say this is another “Die Hard” tribute would be understating things. This is “Die Hard” in a Skyscraper, again with a Big Corporate Celebration, a Eurotrash Villain, A Rogue Anti-Hero With a Loved One Stuck Inside the Building, a Sympathetic Law Enforcement Figure on the Ground, and All Sorts of Familiar Callbacks. If you’re in the mood to watch “Die Hard” but you’ve seen “Die Hard” so many times you can recite the dialogue along with the characters, check out “Cleaner”! It’s like buying a bag of Reese’s Pieces to take a break from Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Although “Cleaner” is what we used to call a “B movie” and makes no bones about it, there’s a certain elevated quality to the proceedings, thanks to the stylish direction from the 81-year-old veteran Martin Campbell (“GoldenEye,” “Casino Royale,” last year’s “Dirty Angels”), who still knows how to stage a harrowing action sequence, and the casting of Daisy Ridley in the John McClane role as the resourceful rebel who must figure out how to thwart the terrorists, and Clive Owen as the Hans Gruber-like, erudite leader of the hostage-takers who crash the party.
Ridley’s Joey Locke is a former military operative who works as a window washer and just happens to be on the job, at night, when gun-toting eco-terrorists led by Clive Owen’s Marcus Blake take over an investors gala event at the Agnian Energy Corp. in London.
As Joey clings to her outdoor perch and tries to signal the emergency to the folks down below, she also must figure out a way to save her autistic brother Michael (Matthew Tuck), who just happens to be a smart hacker and a huge Marvel movies fan, to the point where he carries around a replica of Thor’s hammer and he quotes Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. Oh, and there’s also the matter of Joey being framed as the villain. Thank goodness for the hostage negotiator named Hume (Ruth Gemmell), who isn’t so quick to buy into the theory that Joey is the bad guy.
With the screenplay dropping in some decidedly unsubtle messaging about corporations that feign being eco-friendly even as they pillage the land for profits and power, “Cleaner” zips along at a brisk 88 minutes. We get one gigantic twist that actually works against the film, but it’s still entertaining to see Ridley put her “Star Wars” action training to good use, and come on, we get Clive Owen, you can’t go wrong there. “Cleaner” is “Die Hard,” just with different people.