Very well executed

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Nice effects though.

Great Film overall

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.

Cleaner was a great film that would have gotten a much higher rating, if not for predictability. There are certain actors, when you see their names in the credits, you know, even before the film starts, that they are the bad guy, and that's exactly what happened here. Samuel L. Jackson stars as a former police officer, who was part of a dirty department. He knew that it would only be a matter of time before he was caught up in the corruption, so he decides to get out. Jackson decides to take on the unique, but very real profession of being a crime scene cleaner. One day, he's given a key and a job to do in an upscale neighborhood. Nothing is out of the ordinary, until the next day when he goes to get paid and discovers that the woman there has no idea what he's talking about. Now Jackson must discover who used him to cover up their crime, who was the victim, and why were they murdered? While I prefer Samuel L. Jackson in a more comedic role, he's just as good in a dramatic one. His strength has always been the ability to carry a film, no matter if it's dramatic or ridiculous. Despite being direct-to-video, Cleaner has a large supporting cast of stars that really help the film. A lot of these films tend to have newcomers backing the veteran star, and their weak performances bring down the quality of even the best written films. Here, Jackson is supported by the likes of Eva Mendes, Luis Guzman, and Ed Harris, all of whom are very believable, and all of whom help move the story along. Cleaner is intense, unique, and interesting, if you haven't seen a lot of film, you may not realize who the bad guy is, five minutes into the film, and you may be really surprised. As for me, it was like watching a movie that some amateur Netflix reviewer already ruined for me, and the suburb ending was lost.

Last seen together in "The Spirit", Samuel L Jackson and Eva Mendes are cast again in a thriller that sports an interesting concept, only to have that concept crumble towards the end, chunk by chunk. Not surprising then, that having worked with Jackson twice before, director Renny Harlin steps out of the action league for something along the lines of a whodunit crime thriller.For the most part, Jackson delivers in his role as a retired police detective currently in the business of cleaning up gruesome remains of the dearly departed. Could the title have been any more original? As Tom Cutler, his narration during the opening credits takes us through the repulsive and often overwhelming process of cleaning up a crime scene after forensics have taken away the corpse. As with most cases of death, natural or unnatural, the body is usually taken away for further examination by the coroner, leaving the next of kin to deal with the unsightly job of cleaning whatever remains are left at the scene of death. This is where Cutler comes in, a self employed private cleaner paid by the grieving next of kin to have blood, gore and other fluids spotlessly removed. On one such assignment, Cutler meticulously refurbishes the scene of a blood splattered homicide to its original setting only to learn shortly after, that the cleaning order did not come from the family of the deceased. Complicating the scenario is the absence of a dead body, with the wife of the supposed victim not being aware of a cleaning order in the first place. Realizing that he may have inadvertently destroyed evidence of homicide, Cutler confides in best friend and ex-partner detective Eddie Lorenzo. While Lorenzo (Ed Harris) and Cutler dig deeper into the mystery, they stumble across an increasingly evident case of police corruption of the highest order, a case in which Ann Norcut's (Eva Mendes) missing husband may be been a victim of. In the ensuing plot twist, Cutler establishes a motive, but not before establishing a link between Ann Norcut, Eddie Lorenzo and a ledger of cops on the take. From a directional perspective, Harlin's attempt at a genre outside his league is undeniably fresh and almost flawless. His use of under toned cinematography evoking a dark atmosphere intentionally disguises the film's secret of a murder most foul. Casting is also stellar with an exceptional performance from Harris, spot on chemistry between Jackson and Keke Palmer in an unstable father-daughter relationship and one of the best roles played out by Luis Guzman as the all too suspicious yet tough detective Jim Vargas. What undermines the potentiality of this being a superb thriller is the total disregard given in founding a solid plot. Not matter what the positives are here, the plot fails to carry its own weight and comes crashing through the roof in a disappointingly predictable second half. All said and done, figuring out who the killer is won't require any special powers of deduction, the biggest mystery perhaps is trying to figure out if the killer had an accomplice and if so, what becomes of this accomplice. Numerous other holes aside, the main problem may be the direction the plot takes, where Jackson's narration in the beginning suggests an indication of dark humor, whereas Palmer's narration in the end suggests something else altogether. In the end, what could have become a sensational whodunit along the lines of "L.A. Confidential", gets reduced to a half baked has-been, any 'Nancy Drew' fan would rather not write home about.

I watched this on the recommendation of a friend and, to be honest, he owes me 88 minutes of my life back. It's a crime drama set against the backdrop of the world of forensic clean-up. The guys that clean up what's left after the body has been removed. I'll give you my thoughts after this brief summary (summary haters please stay behind the tape while I clean up the next paragraph).Tom Cutler is a retired cop who is now making a career out of cleaning up crime scenes. His wife was killed some years ago and he lives with his teenage daughter, Rose. He turns up to the scene of a murder to find nobody at home but a key has been left for him. Having completed the job he returns home only to find he still has the key. Going back the next day he's surprised to find the wife, Ann Norcut, at home holding a children's birthday party. He asks if he can speak to her husband, but she says he is out. At this point he tries to cover his tracks, realising that it might be a set-up. He hides the evidence he collected but things are about to turn bad for the former cop. His ex-partner, Eddie Lorenzo, gets in touch and Tom takes the opportunity to ask him about the case. He denies all knowledge, but the investigating officer, another former colleague, Jim Vargas, is slightly more forthcoming. The press have, by now, got hold of the story that Ann Norcut's husband is missing and Tom is between a rock and a hard place. Not everyone is telling the truth and this can only mean trouble.A very complicated plot does not help this film. It strikes me the filmmakers are trying a little too hard to be clever and failing to hit the mark. The performances were OK, but nothing to write home about; Samuel L. Jackson wasn't really stretched as Tom Cutler, Ed Harris had a stroll in the park as Eddie Lorenzo and Eva Mendes was nothing particularly special as Ann Norcut. Honourable mentions should go to Luis Guzmán as Det. Jim Vargas, Keke Palmer who I thought was actually pretty good as Rose Cutler and it was also nice to see Robert Forster as Arlo Grange.It was almost like watching one of those old Philip Marlowe movies where Marlowe was a crime scene clean-up guy instead of a Private Eye. It certainly has that feel, but with nothing like the style it needed to carry it off. Over all I found this one pretty disappointing and I can see why it went straight to DVD… NOT recommended.My score: 5.2/10