Die Hard, Daisy
Daisy Ridley proves her action chops in this fun little Die Hard-esque romp. Don’t go in expecting anything beyond a fun popcorn movie and you will have a good time. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest director Martin Campbell (basically Bond royalty, having done Goldeneye and Casino Royale) has managed to take what could be B-grade source material and made it into something a bit better than average.
Cleaner stars Ridley as Joey, a woman too tough for the military commandos who is now abseiling down the sides of high rises cleaning windows. Her autistic brother Michael (Matthew Tuck) has been kicked out of his care home and she is already late for work, leading to them both still being around when terrorists take over the building seeking to expose the corrupt mining giant’s dirty secrets. Someone has to save the day…
Enter tough as nails Joey to take on Lucas/Noah (Taz Skyler) and Marcus (Clive Owen, haven’t seen you for a while), and the terrorists who you kinda feel like siding with until they start killing people. Who wouldn’t want to see these selfish jerk mining big wigs exposed? She’ll get help from both her brother and police superintendent Claire Hume (Ruth Gemmell), and the rest is fairly standard action fare.
Again, let’s not go in expecting the movie to be some sort of high art masterpiece. There are plenty of cheesy and cliched things happening, but what do you expect from a Die Hard one-woman saviour movie. Ridley is fantastic and physical as the down on her luck hero. The rest of the cast hold things together and director Campbell clearly has enough in his repertoire to keep things interesting.
It’s short, fun and entertaining. Watch it for what it is and you can’t go wrong. Looking forward to Daisy coming back in the sequel – Cleaner 2, Clean Harder. She’s a bona fide action superstar.