Cleaner (2025) Movie Review

Cleaner is a 2025 British action film directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, Dirty Angels, The Protégé) starring Daisy Ridley, Taz Skylar and Clive Owen. It was written by Simon Uttley, Paul Andrew Williams, and Matthew Orton. 

Joanna "Joey" Locke (Ridley) is a window cleaner, and former soldier, working at a high rise that gets in trouble when environmental activists take control of the building during a shareholder gala held by the corrupt and dirty Agnian Energy Company. When things turn uglier and uglier, Joey kicks herself into gear and attempts to take down the armed and dangerous activists. 

Some fast action that's decently shot decorates this otherwise unremarkable and painfully average action film. First off, the entire plot makes very little sense, to the point where the forced and contrived scenario loses steam and logical integrity. This is aggravated by the fact that you don't even know what the writers are going for with their message, it seems very blatantly anti-activist at first by portraying activists (completely unrealistically) as some sort of highly organized and well funded terrorist group. Activists having these many resources and financial support (specially left wing activists) is something not only unheard of but a complete fantasy to begin with. I think the writers were also aware of the fact that the activists were simply correct, so they decided to force a "real bad guy" who takes things "to the extreme" for no real motivation outside of simply trying to portray a position so radical that it makes the radicals look tame. You see why this is confusing? Anyway, the movie tries to make things right by having an unrealistically fair ending where justice is served but it never acknowledges the type of economic and political system that let the greedy company commit crimes in the first place, so it just ends up as an "isolated case" instead of doing any real criticism.

The other thing that's weird is the inclusion of an autistic stereotype that never goes beyond that stereotype, forcing the audience to hear some irritatingly tone deaf dialogue, subjecting us to degrading scenes of autism-in-fiction tropes. That entire character was of very little use to the plot as he only helped a bit in the action and his computer knowledge wasn't even that interesting or impactful of a trait to make the difference.

Daisy Ridler is alright, giving a solid enough performance to make clear that she isn't sleepwalking through the film but she is sort of wasted in a movie with a script that's basic and nothing else. The action sequences are not bad but they are competent and flashy in a run-of-the-mill type of way that makes the spectacular factor wear off real fast, not to mention that the action basically starts about an hour in. Gotta point out that they barely take advantage of the whole "window cleaner" device and it's choreographic potential.

With too many flaws to properly recommend to everyone, Cleaner is only suggested for those who can stomach the tropes mentioned and a lack of fights and shootings during the first half. A Die Hard clone with little bite.

Bubblegum Crisis (1987-1991) OVA Review and Retrospective - Episode 5: Moonlight Rambler

Moonlight Rambler is the fifth episode of the original Bubblegum Crisis series. It's directed by Katsuhito Akiyama, Hiroaki Gôda, Hiroki Hayashi, Masami Ôbari and Fumihiko Takayama; and written by Toshimichi Suzuki, Katsuhito Akiyama, Shinji Aramaki, Emu Arii, Hideki Kakinuma and Ken'ichi Matsuzaki; with the voices of Yoshiko Sakakibara, Kinuko Ômori, Michie Tomizawa and Akiko Hiramatsu.

In the futuristic 2033 A.D. setting, two women (Sylvie and Anri), escape from the artificial space island named Genaros above Mega Tokyo. With their partners dead, the girls flee in a ship but are attacked by a boomer designed for space combat known as Doberman. In Mega Tokyo, victims of the Doberman are found with their blood drained out of their bodies, the AD Police investigates these seemingly vampiric murders. GENOM's head and Largo are behind an operation that involves building high-tech weapons they plan to sell, using the space island to this means. Priss and the Knight Sabers team meet with Sylvie as she is a friend of hers and they get to like her a lot. However, Sylvie hides a deadly secret that is revealed as the conspiracy unfolds.

A strong episode confident in it's prominence of action and explosive mechanical combat and shootouts. Starting with a bang, the story develops with it's reveals and the investigation work done by the characters. Priss gets sidelined a bit as a lot of the runtime is devoted to the GENOM bad guys hatching their scheme and having important meetings. Special focus is also primarily put on Sylvie as she escapes and hides alongside Anri. However, she has a few sweet moments with Priss that help to set the stakes and to present their relationship through casual interactions.

As usual, the animation is splendid and outstandingly executed. Presentation-wise this is among the most flashy and impressive when it comes to action set-pieces, especially with the very good first impression the opening delivers. I can't really find much fault except for a few odd frames here and there, but I will say that its disappointing that so far into the show the main characters aren't the sole focus, to the point where there are incidental characters in this episode that have more lines of dialogue than some of the main girls.

The ending is quite affecting and moving as a sacrifice has to be made in order for others to be protected but at a very high cost. The magic of a series with such economic characterizations and plots is that they do pull off effective dramatic and sentimental points without devoting much time to the characters involved, only the amount of time and actions that are needed, and they also let us infer the outcome and their reactions by now showing the aftermath.

Highly enjoyable episode but it could have used more of the leading team.

Honor and Glory (1992) Movie Review

Zong heng tian xia (also known as Honor and Glory, Angel the Kickboxer, Power Heat and Naked Fists) is a 1992 crime action movie directed by legendary actionsploitation film director Godfrey Ho (here under the pseudonym Godfrey hall), this being his first American feature (he's also known in the subgenre for Angel Enforcers, Undefeatable, Lethal Panther, Princess Madam, Manhattan Chase and Terminal Angels), and written by Ho himself under the other fake name Herb Borkland. It stars Cynthia Rothrock, Donna Jason, John Miller, Chuck Jeffreys and Robin Shou.

The film follows FBI agent Tracy Pride (Rothrock) as she travels from Hong Kong to America in order to investigate a case of extortion and murder linked to corrupt businessman Jason Slade (John Miller), with the help of her partner, Dragon Lee (Shou). She reunites with her sister Joyce (Donna Jason), a news reporter who becomes her new partner as well. Both also cross paths with their absent father John, who basically left them to be raised by a kung fu master, played by real life sifu Tai Yim. They also meet with one of Slade's bodyguards, Jake Armstrong, whose moral compass makes him switch sides and join Tracy in her search for capturing the villain.

Now with enough time and resources to put together a full feature, Godfrey once again shows that he has the skills to be not only coherent but rather notable as an action director. The characters speak the language of martial arts and communicate with ease through movements and physicality. The best example of this is the small fight between Tracy and her sister once they see each other again while trying to snatch the car keys from each other. A little bit of their dynamic and background is expressed there without having to say much. A highlight.

The rest stands up to par, delivering some potent choreographies expertly executed and shot. While most copies of the film are somewhat shoddy, I think you can still see through the defects of the VHS version and appreciate the very sharp and striking visuals by DP Michael Law (Lethal Panther, Undefeatable). The fight sequences have a lot of energy and rhythm, allowing the performers to show off their moves and forms quite organically and swiftly.

The performances are very alright. None of them rise above what we have seen of them before or what we might expect but none of them are actually bad. The only issues I had with the film is that it was a bit more disjointed than I remembered, losing steam whenever the main plot wasn't in motion. The emotional or dramatic scenes are not particularly powerful either, and Joyce gets kind of underutilized in the second half of the film. Other than that, it's a very swift and short experience running just 86 minutes but getting to the good stuff fast and often enough to entertain.

Recommended for action movie fans and Rothrock enthusiasts.