Cleaner (R-2007)

"Cleaner" is not a bad way to spend an hour and a half, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it or rush it to the top of my Netflix queue. It was mentioned to me by a friend and once he mentioned the cast included Samuel L. Jackson and Ed Harris, I definitely wanted to check it out. Jackson and Harris are good, as you would expect, but the movie itself is just run of the mill. Jackson plays Tom Cutler, a retired detective who has started a "biological" clean-up business (crime scenes, suicides, etc.). After his latest job, he learns the owner of the house is missing and starts to believe the job may actually have been a cover-up of a murder. He turns to his former partner, Eddie Lorenzo (Ed Harris), who is still on the force, for help in getting to the bottom of it. Of course, the more he digs, the more he begins to find himself as a prime suspect. It is a decent mystery and an interesting concept, but the biggest plot twist in the movie is painfully obvious, to the point that I was thinking: If they go in that direction, it would totally ruin this movie. They did. It did not totally ruin the movie as I am a big fan of Jackson and Harris and they were both good, but it did knock it down a few grades. My recommendation: check it out on cable.

Grade: C-

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