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Review: ‘The Cleaner’ (2021), starring King Orba, Shelley Long, Eden Brolin, Shiloh Fernandez, Luke Wilson and Lynda Carter

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drama , Eden Brolin , Erin Elders , Faust Checho , Hopper Penn , James Paxton , King Orba , Luke Wilson , Lynda Carter , Milena Govich , movies , reviews , Shelley Long , Shiloh Fernandez , The Cleaner

December 30, 2021

by Carla Hay

“The Cleaner” (2021)

Directed by Erin Elders

Culture Representation:  Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the dramatic film “The Cleaner” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash:  A down-on-his luck house cleaner gets mixed up in dangerous activities when he’s hired to find a woman’s missing and wayward adult son.

Culture Audience:  “The Cleaner” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching a poorly constructed crime movie with subpar acting.

There’s something dirty and rotten about “The Cleaner.” And it’s not just the scumbag characters in this movie. It’s a crime drama that tries to go for gritty realism, but it’s just a ridiculous mess of a story with terrible dialogue, lousy acting and uneven pacing. The ending is so cliché, it’s cringeworthy.

“The Cleaner” is the feature-film directorial debut of Erin Elders, who co-wrote the movie with King Orba. Unfortunately, Elders seems to have let his screenwriter collaboration with Orba cloud his judgment on who to cast as the movie’s protagonist/title character. Orba is the lead character in this movie, and his wooden acting is by far the worst in this cast, which has a random mix of longtime actors whose careers peaked years ago.

It’s also one of those movies that takes too long (the first third of the movie) to get to the point of the story. In “The Cleaner,” Orba portrays Buck Enderly, a down-on-his-luck house cleaner who lives alone in a trailer in an unnamed U.S. city. Before he was a house cleaner, he sold RVs, but he got fired from his job for being an underperforming salesperson. Buck is so broke that he has to get around by bicycle because his car blew its transmission, and he can’t afford to get the car fixed or buy a new car.

Enderly Cleaning is a company that Buck’s cranky mother Sharon Enderly (played by Shelley Long) founded years ago. She’s now retired but concerned that Buck won’t be able to keep the business going. And she has cause for concern: Business has been very slow lately. Because of a recession, people are making cutbacks on their household budgets, including housecleaning services.

“The Cleaner” is a slow-paced film with a rushed ending. Much of the slow pace is because the movie wastes a lot of time showing Buck’s somewhat tense relationship with his mother Sharon, and how he gets to know two new neighbors who move in next door to Sharon. These neighbors are live-in lovers Trent (played by Hopper Penn) and Becky (played by Eden Brolin), who have a volatile relationship because Trent physically and emotionally abuses Becky.

Becky invites Sharon to a housewarming party, where Sharon gets drunk and then sprains her ankle. And so, there’s some drama with Buck having to take Sharon to a hospital, but he doesn’t have a car, so he has to ask Trent and Becky for a ride. It’s all just a contrivance because it leads to a subplot where Sharon is prescribed medication that her insurance doesn’t fully cover.

That leads to Buck stealing batteries (don’t ask) when he goes to the pharmacy to get her prescription medication and finds out he doesn’t have the money to cover the cost. Buck gets arrested for shoplifting after a silly chase scene where he tries to get away. But what do you know: The cop who arrests Buck just happens to be his estranged younger brother Craig Enderly (played by Faust Checho), who hasn’t spoken to Buck in months because he thinks Buck is a loser.

Luckily for Buck, the pharmacy manager decides not to press charges, so Buck doesn’t spend any time in jail for the shoplifting. And did we mention that Craig has a girlfriend named Vanessa (played by Milena Govich), whom Sharon can’t stand, even though Craig plans to marry Vanessa? Craig and Sharon have a rocky relationship because Craig blames Sharon for her husband (the father of Craig and Buck) leaving the family when Craig and Buck were children.

All of this family drama with Sharon and her children has nothing to do with what this movie is really about, but the filmmakers clogged up “The Cleaner” with this storyline, in order to pad out a very thin plot. There are also several time-wasting scenes with Buck hanging out with his marijuana dealer James (played by James Paxton), who’s young enough to be Buck’s son. Even though Buck whines to a lot of people about how broke he is, he still has enough money to buy marijuana. Priorities.

What “The Cleaner” is really about is an unexpected job that Buck is hired to do: He agrees to be an unofficial private investigator (even though he has no experience in this area) to find a missing person. The job comes about when one of Buck’s housecleaning clients named Jim Russell (played by Luke Wilson) lays him off due to budget cuts. Jim feels bad about letting Buck go, so Jim refers Buck to a neighbor who might need housecleaning services.

This neighbor is a has-been/retired singer named Carlene Briggs (played by Lynda Carter), who lives alone and isn’t interested in hiring Buck for housecleaning services. When Buck goes over to Carlene’s house for the first time, she openly flirts with him and makes him listen to her croon in her living room, as if it’s some kind of cabaret lounge. She wears a frilly négligée and even has a microphone for this living-room performance. Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

Buck resists Carlene’s flirtatious advances, so she then asks him if he can provide some investigative services for her. Apparently, even though Buck has no experience in private detective work, Carlene thinks that Buck looks like the type who knows his way around the seedy underbelly of this community. And so, she asks Buck to find her missing adult son Andrew Briggs (played by Shiloh Fernandez), whom she describes as a drug addict and a thief.

Carlene is only paying $1,000 to Buck if he finds Andrew, which is an appallingly low amount of money for this type of private investigator work. Buck, like an idiot, doesn’t ask for more money. He’s so desperate for money, he says yes to the job. Carlene doesn’t seem concerned that she’s hiring someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing. It’s one of many eye-rolling aspects of this moronic movie.

“The Cleaner” then goes down a rabbit hole of stupidity as viewers are expected to believe some of the things that happen when a woefully incompetent Buck does some “detective work” that involves some “only in a movie” type of dumb luck. The only realistic thing about Buck’s “detective work” is that he has to ask his cop brother Craig for help in accessing information records that only law enforcement or real private detectives would be able to access.

The movie also has somewhat strange and random casting of actors that’s an awkward mix. Soleil Moon Frye, best known for starring in the 1980s sitcom “Punky Brewster,” has a cameo as a trashy-looking barfly named Kristi. She’s not believable in this role. And it seems like the only reason why Carter took the role in this film is to showcase her singing, which does not fit this supposedly gritty story well at all. The ending of “The Cleaner” ties in to the movie’s opening scene, where a shooting takes place at a diner. But it’s not enough to cover up all the loose ends and unnecessary scenes that make the movie an insufferable, tangled mess.

1091 Pictures released “The Cleaner” on digital and VOD on October 12, 2021.

The Cleaner

Where to Watch

Matty Cardarople (Donny) Luke Wilson (Jim Russell) Shelley Long (Sharon Enderly) Lynda Carter (Carlene Briggs) Soleil Moon Frye (Kristi) Eden Brolin (Becky) Heather McComb (Laura Russell) M.C. Gainey (Doug) Mike Starr (Carl) Milena Govich (Vanessa)

Erin Elders

A middle-aged house cleaner gets caught up in a violent crime after being hired to locate a client's estranged son.

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Review: ‘The Cleaner’ King Orba, Luke Wilson, And Lynda Carter Star In A Crime Drama About Stepping Out Of Your Comfort Zone

When you think of a movie titled “ The Cleaner, ” one would automatically think Erin Elders’ directorial debut would be about an actual “cleaner,” or someone who fixes up things after something in the criminal world has gone awry (along the lines of Harvey Keitel’s Winston Wolf from Pulp Fiction ) and makes sure that whatever damage has been done has basically been “cleaned up.” However, in short-film director Elders’ directorial debut The Cleaner, it’s actually about an honest domestic worker who gets sucked into a different world after wanting to do a favor and help find a missing person for one of his customers (along with the $1,000 reward).

Buck Enderly (King Orba) spends most of his time taking over his sick mother’s fledgling cleaning business. He goes door to door either cleaning up for his clients, or trying to solicit new business by leaving flyers on homes in the neighborhood. His mother Sharon (Shelley Long) is bed-ridden and pretty much dependent on him to help run errands as well as pay rent in their mobile home. He does his duty as her son to sacrifice on her behalf, unlike his brother (Faust Checho) who is somewhat ashamed of their economic situation living in a trailer park. Buck’s only friends are his weed dealer/”marketing rep” (James Paxton), who actually messes up Buck’s business cards, and neighbor Becky (Eden Brolin), who he and his mother help out after she’s being abused by her boyfriend. Things change for him when he picks up a new client.

Jim (Luke Wilson) is one of his regulars who unfortunately tells him that his cleaning services will need to be put on hold temporarily, but as a parting gift, he tells Buck that one of his neighbors named Carlene (Lynda Carter) is in need of cleaning services. Because he always needs clients to continue to pay for his mother’s medication, he meets with Carlene. Turns out, Charlene doesn’t need any cleaning services as he home is rather spotless, but instead, she needs help trying to find her estranged son Andrew (Shiloh Fernandez) who she hasn’t seen in quite some time and is worried about him.

Leaning on his police officer brother as a resource, Buck turns into an almost private investigator as he begins to peel the onion off layer by layer as he learns about Andrew and his world. Turns out, Andrew is into some serious stuff. He’s leaving behind debts everywhere he goes as well as the wrong kind of people looking for him. This sucks Buck into a world that he’s not familiar with. While Buck is almost effortlessly navigating being a PI with ease, it’s far removed from his day to day of just cleaning houses. One might wonder if he should instead take his talents to investigations.

Unfortunately, the main driver of The Cleaner is also the least interesting. Buck’s family dynamic with his mother, brother, and newfound friend Becky makes for a much more interesting tale of different people all connected either through circumstance or via family works for this film a lot better than the mystery about what’s going on with this kid who doesn’t want to be found. There are some events that happen towards the end of The Cleaner that help provide clarity as well as resolve that part of the story, but it, unfortunately, pales in comparison to other moments of the film.

Now that doesn’t mean that The Cleaner is by any means not an intriguing movie. In addition to director Elders writing the script, Buck himself King Orba is also a screenwriter for the film, and both are able to deliver an interesting story surrounding the family dynamic Buck is dealing with. In addition to the script, the acting across the board is great. There is an Easter Egg smorgasbord of various character actors you know and love including MC Gainey, Mike Starr, Matty Cardarople, and Noel Gugliemi (who is once again playing a Latino named “Hector”) in The Cleaner, and they all deliver for their roles. Overall, The Cleaner is a well-acted character study on family and stepping out of your comfort zone and worth the watch!

The Cleaner is currently available on VOD.

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Movie Review: A missing son, a kid gone wrong and “The Cleaner” is sent to find him

A missing person, suggestions of crime and down-and-out working poor trailer-park Angelinos struggling to get by — let’s label “The Cleaner” an indie film noir and see if I can make that stick.

This quirky, laid-back and downbeat drama is a star vehicle for King Orba, whose credits cover a wide range of jobs , positions, “additional crew” and the occasional acting job (“The Mighty Orphans,” TV’s “Stargirl”). He co-wrote it with first-time feature director Erin Elder and plays Buck, a broke 50ish house cleaner who lives in an RV next to the trailer housing his retired “piss and vinegar” house cleaner mother ( Shelley Long ).

Buck’s barely getting by on a good day, pedaling an old beach bike to cleaning jobs from a client list he inherited from his mother Sharon..

It wasn’t always like this, though we get the impression it was never much better. Buck used to sell RVs, like the one he lives in. But something happened.

At least his make-ends-meet struggle leaves him just enough cash to score a little weed from his younger friend, James ( James Paxton of TV’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”). James is all about making his own marijuana blends and giving them cute names — “marketing.”

Buck juggles work and keeping an eye on his medicated, beer-loving Mom, and not very successfully. Their new neighbor Becky ( Eden Brolin of TV’s “Yellowstone”) might help out. It’s the least she can do after she gets Mom drunk at her trailer-warming party.

Then this new client, Carlene ( Lynda Carter , TV’s “Wonder Woman”), an elderly retired singer, springs this on Buck.

“I don’t want you to clean my house, Buck. I want you to find my son.”

Buck, a guy without a car, without a computer, without a cell-phone, is supposed to locate an estranged adult son with “problems,” somebody who doesn’t want to be found in one of the largest cities in the Americas.

Even with a little help from James, who at least knows how to use social media, and Buck’s cop-brother Craig ( Faust Checho ), Buck is plainly “not qualified” to do this and is out of his depth.

But the singer favors him with a song, and shoves cash in his hand. It’d be rude not to try.

“The Cleaner” is so laid back it’s on the Matthew McConaughey “J.K. Livin'” spectrum.

The dialogue is spare, the “clues” Buck picks up on simple and obvious as he pedals his bike around East L.A., following up, masking his innocuous requests (“You seen this guy?”) behind unnecessary mystery because he’s probably seen the way the gumshoes do it in old movies or “The Rockford Files.”

The screenplay has just enough peripheral complications to keep things interesting. Cop brother Craig is almost estranged from his mother. He tries to bring his fiance ( Soleil Moon Frye ) to meet her, and that dinner goes from awkward to “trailer trash” ugly in a flash. Neighbor Becky is in an abusive relationship.

The script’s grace notes include a clever way of introducing Craig. Buck comes home to find his mother’s turned her ankle at Becky’s beer bust. He goes to get her pain med prescription filled, learns the medicine isn’t covered by Medicaid and winds up shoplifting batteries for her TV remote. He’s caught.

The cop who picks him up starts in with “Aren’t you ashamed? ” Then we find out he’s his brother.

“The Cleaner” is the sort of movie you can make if you spend a lot of time on film sets and are personable enough to start conversations with the stars. Luke Wilson starred in “The Mighty Orphans” with Orb in a supporting role. Hey Luke, wouldya do me a solid?

Wilson, long a champion of indie cinema, signs on for a couple of scenes as a house cleaning client.

Veteran character players M.C. Gainey and Mike Starr join Long and Carter and Moon Frye and Shiloh Fernandez (of “Evil Dead,” playing the missing son here) and Sean Penn and Robin Wright’s son Hopper Penn in a cast whose assembly would be a fun tale to tell, and who ensured “The Cleaner” got financed.

And all that pays off with a quietly-compelling mystery set in a milieu that’s grittier than most of the characters living in it are willing to admit, struggling people who are colorful, believable and (mostly) relatable.

It’s not a polished jewel, but even in the rough “The Cleaner” shines, more proof that you don’t need to limit yourself to horror to get your first film made.

Rating: unrated, violence, drug abuse

Cast: King Orba, Shelley Long, Eden Brolin, Lynda Carter, Soleil Moon Frye, Mike Starr, M.C. Gainey and Luke Wilson.

Credits: Directed by Erin Elders, scripted by Erin Elders and King Obra. A 1091 release.

Running time: 1:33

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The Cleaner review – Greg Davies leads a dark and curious comedy

An opening two-hander between Davies as a crime scene cleaner and Helena Bonham Carter as a murderer strikes an odd tone – but their quality and ambition just about save the day

T he Cleaner (BBC One) is a strange creation, and – while intriguing – it may turn out to be an acquired taste. Loosely inspired by the German comedy series Der Tatortreiniger (Crime Scene Cleaner), it is written by Greg Davies , who also stars as Paul “Wicky” Wickstead, a cleaner sent to mop up the messes left behind after gruesome killings and untimely deaths. (The title and setup slightly spoil the first joke, where he arrives as if he is a detective, only to slap down his tray of solvents and cloths.) Each week, Wicky visits a different house; each week he deals with a different “client”, to put business-speak to deservedly macabre use.

In this opening episode he is tasked with making a suburban kitchen look normal again after a murder, rather than the way it looks as he arrives, which is as if someone has shoved a cow in a blender and used the results as wallpaper paste. He soon finds himself engaged in a game of cat and mouse with “the Widow”, played by Helena Bonham Carter, who is phenomenally watchable in just about everything she does, including this. Here, she is at peak HBC – dishevelled, reaching for madness, and in a stylishly oversized coat. The Widow stabbed her husband 38 times. “You only need five stabs,” Wicky grumbles. “Anything else is showboating.”

What follows is a theatrical conceit that does a lot with a minimal cast. There is a nosy neighbour who believes cleaning to be a woman’s job – until Wicky knocks her back with a few chemical formulas and a brag about how he can get beetroot out of anything – but really, this is a two-hander between Davies and Bonham Carter. She returns to the scene of the crime and holds him hostage within the first few minutes of the episode, which leaves the rest of it to play out as a meditation on boredom, domesticity and what drives a woman to such lengths.

If that sounds a bit weighty for a comedy, then it might be because it is. The Cleaner is a curious mix, attempting to balance slapstick moments, such as the brutal kicking of a pie, with pathos-laden observations about ambition and freedom. Sometimes, it works wonderfully. The Widow’s complaints about feeling unseen are beautifully written and performed, and their fantastical duet is genuinely touching. But the two actors occasionally appear to be performing at different pitches, in two different shows. She berates Wicky for keeping his world small, while he complains loudly that he is “being held at gunpoint by a murderer who is having a shit”. Bonham Carter may be Oscar-nominated, but she is not above literal toilet humour.

By the end, however, it starts to bed in, and begins to feel like a film in miniature. I was intrigued enough to skip ahead, and it continues to find its feet in later episodes, which include one starring David Mitchell as a novelist whose grandmother has burned to death, and another with Years & Years’ Ruth Madeley as a strict vegan and neighbour of the deceased, who helps Wicky when he is locked out of a crime scene. The darker moments suit Davies, who has a feel for melancholy that goes beyond some of the more brash instincts here, and the anthology style is a smart choice that revives the format week after week. It is a curious, unusual new arrival that packs a lot into 30 minutes, and it’s hard not admire its ambition.

• Greg Davies

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Cleaner’ On BritBox, Where Greg Davies Is A Crime Scene Cleaner Who Gets Embroiled Personal Dramas At Every Stop

Where to stream:.

• The Cleaner

Stream It Or Skip It: 'Time' Season 2 on BritBox, Examining Three Women Locked Up For Very Different Reasons

Stream it or skip it: 'catch me a killer' on britbox, a drama about south africa's first serial killer profiler, stream it or skip it: 'agatha christie's murder is easy' on britbox, where a man investigates murders in a british village, 'agatha christie's murder is easy' exclusive clip: a body is found in britbox's new adaptation of agatha christie's novel.

COVID has forced series writers and producers to be very creative with how they shoot shows. But with those restrictions comes some interesting premises. Greg Davies, best known for  The Inbetweeners and  Taskmaster , has found a way to make a funny show with unique points of view in each episode, while limiting scenes to one to three people. Read on for more…

THE CLEANER : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Crime scene tape surrounds a house. A man walks right under the tape, past the police officer patrolled there. He’s warned by the cop inside that the scene is bad, and indeed it is. Blood’s everywhere. That’s when he puts down his spray bottles to get to work.

The Gist: Paul “Wicky” Wickstead (Greg Davies) isn’t a cop. He works for a company that cleans crime scenes. He knows how to get blood out of a white carpet. So he knows what he’s doing. He’s also dismayed at the fact that blood is all over the kitchen where a wife stabbed her husband 38 times. “Five would have done it,” he exclaims.

Wicky wants to get to the pub because it’s curry night, and he wants to be there when the naan comes right out of the oven. But as he starts cleaning, a neighbor comes by with a pie, which he kicks out of her hands in self-defense. But he finds out more about the new widow, who’s buggered off. She doesn’t bake, which is why the neighbor never trusted her.

Then someone else comes to the door; Sheila (Helena Bonham Carter), the widow herself. She takes off her overcoat to show a blouse full of blood, and she holds Wicky at gunpoint; now he’ll never get to the pub. She makes him stand in the bathroom while she drops a deuce, and generally talks to him about why she snapped and killed her husband in a rage instead of leaving him. Part of it involves his modeling… scale models, dozens of them. He even made the model of her dream vacation spot. But Wicky still has no idea why she would kill him instead of leave.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The mundanity of how Wicky treats his not-so-mundane job reminds us of another British comedy import,  Hit Men ,  though Wicky would clean up what the women from that show would create.

Our Take: Davies, who might be familiar to American audiences as one of the hosts of  Taskmaster , created and wrote  The Cleaner;  each episode is essentially a two-person play, with a few other people coming in and out of the main scene to add a little depth. But what Davies has a talent for is to not only give Wicky some particular character traits that help keep his character from being just a 6’8″ guy in a clean suit, but to create pretty full characterizations of the people Wicky encounters at the various cleanup scenes.

The first episode remarkably tells an entire story arc in 28 minutes, especially when Carter shows up. Davies’ writing, along with Carter’s performance, conveys to us all of the feelings that went through Sheila’s head, making her go from crazy to sympathetic back to crazy again. But the story goes beyond that, as she tries to convince Wicky that he needs to shake his life up just as she wanted to, and that the two of them should escape to her dream getaway before she turns herself in.

To see what other situations Wicky gets into, we watched the second episode, where David Mitchell plays Terrence Redford, an author whose grandmother dies in a wood burning stove accident. But he somehow is more concerned with his novel deadline and getting quiet than his grief. And, while that story is a bit different than the first one, Davies still manages to complete a well-examined arc in 28 minutes while getting a lot of funny material in.

In a way,  The Cleaner is anthology, even though Wicky is in every episode, getting angry every time someone calls him just a “cleaner”. “I’m a crime scene cleaner,” he always replies, explaining how he knows how to clean what others deem to be impossible. Even though we don’t really see him doing that much of that work, we know he takes pride in it, and that’s a big part of what makes Wicky more than just a workaday lug, and seeing him play off the different characters he encounters is fun to watch.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Wicky says yes to Sheila’s offer for him to join her at her favorite vacation spot, but he comes to his senses.

Sleeper Star: Zita Sattar is in a few episodes as Ruth, the police detective who calls Wicky to clean scenes. She’s there to bust Wicky about going to curry night and other boring aspects of his life.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT.  The Cleaner works as a comedy, but it also works as light drama, as Davies has found an ingenious way to make each episode completely different.

Will you stream or skip the crime scene comedy #TheCleaner on @BritBox_US ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) November 3, 2021

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream  The Cleaner On BritBox

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Code name: the cleaner, common sense media reviewers.

Amnesia action-comedy might hurt your brain, too.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Terrible behavior all around: lying, cheating, kil

Nothing here that you'd want your child emulating.

Jake first appears in a bed with a corpse (blood o

Sexual/comedy situations push edge of the PG-13 ra

Frequent uses (over 10 each) of "damn," "s--t" (so

Repeated images of Lacoste shirt, Jaguar and Saab

Use of "truth-telling" injection makes Jake look d

Parents need to know that this dreadful spy comedy pushes the PG-13 edge with regard to sexual imagery and humor. Main character Jake makes lots of crude jokes about his "prowess," and women constantly appear in various states of undress and/or otherwise show off their assets (Nicollette Sheridan essentially reprises…

Positive Messages

Terrible behavior all around: lying, cheating, killing, and lots of lust. Women are largely objectified, and stereotypes are constantly played for humor.

Positive Role Models

Violence & scariness.

Jake first appears in a bed with a corpse (blood on pillow and body, blood on Jake's head); repeated "flashbacks" to action scenes show Jake in special forces unit (they carry and shoot guns, break windows, explode grenades, and engage in martial arts combat); Jake falls out a window onto a car; Gina frenzy-slaps Jake several times (treated as comedy); men shoot through the roof of Gina's car and she shoots back (both men presumably left dead); martial arts fights (kicks, hits, loud sound effects).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Sexual/comedy situations push edge of the PG-13 rating: Jake fondles the body in bed with him as he wakes, not seeing at first that it's a dead man; Jake's action-scene fantasy includes him slapping an old woman's butt by accident (she smiles and adjusts her skirt afterward); sexual dance by Diane in skimpy pink underwear (Jake refers to "little Jake" and calls Diane a "freak"); Jake is mistaken for online sexual partner by creepy guy (who notes the online user names "hotbuns69" and "sweaty and ready"); hiding in the car, Jake puts his face in Gina's lap and suggests he feels "someplace familiar" janitor raps about using a "plunger" creepy joke about Jake being "good at" sex; outtakes accompanying closing credits include more sex jokes, both verbal ("How long I been hittin' it?", "You making willy chilly") and visual (an especially egregious gag involves a man bending over and asking that a man with a gun "Put in my ass!").

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent uses (over 10 each) of "damn," "s--t" (some accompanied by "bull"), and "hell,"(repeatedly, "Hell, no!"); also "dumbass," "bitch," "shut up, you idiot," and references to "Dutch chocolate" and "Mandingo" (referring to Jake).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Repeated images of Lacoste shirt, Jaguar and Saab cars, Skittles, Jet magazine, Sweet 'n' Low, Best Buy; verbal references to Tater Tots, Spider-man, Lionel Richie, Ricola, Papa John's, Quiznos, Crazy Chicken.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Use of "truth-telling" injection makes Jake look drunk and prompts a joke about the drug causing cardiac arrest ("his heart will explode"); hateful joke about an Asian hotel attendant's pronunciation ("refill the minibar" becomes "reefer in the minibar"); reference to mai tais.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this dreadful spy comedy pushes the PG-13 edge with regard to sexual imagery and humor. Main character Jake makes lots of crude jokes about his "prowess," and women constantly appear in various states of undress and/or otherwise show off their assets (Nicollette Sheridan essentially reprises her vavoomy Desperate Housewives role, but it's not funny here). The movie's action-comedy-style violence is broad and brutal (though mostly bloodless), including shooting, car crashes, grenades exploding, and martial arts fighting. Language is obnoxious, with slang and obscenities used througout, including repeated uses of "s--t," "damn," and "hell." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In CODE NAME: THE CLEANER, Jake ( Cedric the Entertainer ) finds himself in a hotel room bed with a bloody corpse -- but with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Running from the room with a briefcase full of cash, Jake begins to piece together his past when he meets sultry Diane (Nicollette Sheridan), who claims to be his wife. When at last Jake overhears her plot to shoot him full of drugs, he takes off with the briefcase again. A meeting with a second woman suggests a second possible past. Sexy, feisty diner waitress Gina ( Lucy Liu ) reports that Jake is janitor. But thanks to some apparent flashbacks that place him in an elite military unit, shooting up "bad guys" and blowing up buildings, Jake ultimately believes a third option.

Is It Any Good?

Crude and mostly pathetic, Code Name: The Cleaner rips off almost every other action-comedy film of the past decade, especially those starring Martin Lawrence and Jackie Chan . From its weak premise to its boring action to its unpleasant jokes, director Les Mayfield 's movie fulfills the worst expectations of January releases: It's awful.

The plot involves a super-important computer chip, video games, FBI agents, and a Dutch clogging demonstration, as well as an ambitious janitor (DeRay Davis) who raps about plungers and mops and a fierce CEO who also happens to be a lethal martial arts expert ( Mark Decascos ). No, these various elements don't ever come together to make sense. And yes, Jake does remember who he is. Not that you'd care.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the movie's use of class and race stereotypes -- particularly the way it contrasts Jake's working-class background with the rich characters' stuffiness.

Does embracing stereotypes for comic effect make them easier to swallow?

Why are jokes based on stereotypes more or less funny depending on who delivers them?

Families can also discuss the film's treatment of its female characters. How do the two main women embody the opposite versions of Jake's fantasy self?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 4, 2007
• On DVD or streaming : April 24, 2007
• Cast : Cedric the Entertainer , Lucy Liu , Nicollette Sheridan
• Director : Les Mayfield
• Inclusion Information : Black actors, Female actors, Asian actors
• Studio : New Line
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 84 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sexual content, crude humor and some violence.
• Last updated : February 12, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Cleaner Ending, Explained: Who Is the Killer?

‘Cleaner’ is a 2007 thriller movie that revolves around Tom Cutler, a former police officer who inadvertently becomes a part of a homicide cover-up. Directed by Renny Harlin (‘ The Misfits ‘), the movie follows a whodunnit narrative while questioning the extremes of morality. As the narrative progresses, Tom races against time to find the real killer and save himself from being framed for a murder he did not commit.

However, in the process, he finds those close to him plunged into danger. In the end, Tom’s morality is questioned as he must make some hard choices. Therefore, viewers must be curious to find out how Tom navigates the complicated situation. In that case, here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Cleaner.’ SPOILERS AHEAD!

Cleaner Plot Synopsis

‘Cleaner’ opens with Tom Cutler ( Samuel L. Jackson ), a former police officer, explaining his occupation as a crime scene cleaner. After retiring from the Trenton Police Department, he now operates his own crime scene clean-up service while living as a single dad and looking after his daughter, Rose. One day, he receives an assignment to clean up a luxurious home. After arriving on the scene, Tom learns that the house is empty and the door is locked. The case file instructs Tom to enter the home with the help of a key left under a plant. Tom cleans up the house and goes back, only to realize that he did not return the key.

The following day, Tom returns to the house to hand over the key and meets the owner, Ann Norcut ( Eva Mendes ). However, she is unaware of Tom’s services being rendered. As a result, Tom grows suspicious of the situation. After some research, Tom learns that the police did not assign the clean-up. Hence, it becomes evident to Tom that he has become a part of a crime, and his services have been used to clean up a murder. From his police friend, Eddie Lorenzo ( Ed Harris ), Tom learns that Ann’s husband, John Norcut, is missing.

John is a key witness in a corruption case against former police commissioner Robert Vaughn. John disappeared just a day before testifying in front of the grand jury, thereby hinting at foul play. Hence, Tom becomes convinced that he was framed to be a part of John’s murder. Moreover, Ann reveals to Tom that John possessed a ledger with the badge numbers of the corrupt police officers on his payroll. Surprisingly, Tom’s badge number is also on the ledger.

After Tom reveals the situation to Eddie, he suggests that Tom burn the ledger as it indicates a motive for Tom to murder John. Meanwhile, Ann identifies John’s remains at a morgue. Thus, Tom is left with no choice but to find the real killer before being implicated in John’s murder. However, Tom’s investigation leads him into a more personal conspiracy than he initially imagined. How Tom untangles the complex web of crime and misguided motivations forms the rest of the plot.

Cleaner Ending: Who Is the Killer?

As the narrative progresses, viewers learn that Ann suffered a miscarriage. However, at the morgue, Tom discovers that John had a vasectomy years before Ann’s pregnancy. Therefore, Tom deduces that the child could not have been John’s and suspects Ann was having an affair. While discussing the case with Eddie, Tom realizes that Ann and Eddie share a connection through Eddie’s work with a student outreach program. Thus, Tom is convinced that Eddie is Ann’s boyfriend. Furthermore, after examining the situation and all the clues, Tom concludes that Eddie killed John.

Tom works with Detective Vargas, who is investigating the case of John’s murder, to catch Eddie. However, Eddie lures Tom into his home by threatening Tom’s daughter, Rose. The two have a heated debate as Eddie tries to reason with Tom. Eddie reveals that John forced Ann to have an abortion, and she did not have a miscarriage. Feeling robbed of his chance to start a family, Eddie murdered John and then used Tom’s services to cover up the crime.

Tom tries to convince Eddie to surrender, but Eddie holds Tom at gunpoint. Eddie pleads that anything is fair when one is trying to protect their family. He tries to use Tom’s past against him and justifies his actions. However, Tom stalls until the police arrive. After realizing that he will be caught, Eddie decides to shoot Tom. However, before he can pull the trigger, Eddie is shot dead by Rose (with Tom’s gun). In the end, Tom hands over the ledger to Vargas, who promises to burn it. Vargas allows Tom to walk free and covers up the crime.

Ultimately, the film’s climax hinges on the main characters’ moralities as they fight to distinguish between right and wrong. Eddie believes that his murder of John is justified. He compares his crime to Tom’s past when Tom did a dirty job for Vaughn. While Tom walked the wrong side of the law, he did so to protect his daughter. On the other hand, Eddie murdered John, driven by remorse and revenge. Therefore, his actions are morally unjust, and he deserves to be punished.

In the end, Rose’s timely intervention saves her father from certain death, and she kills Eddie. However, Tom exchanges the ledger for his and Rose’s freedom, thereby committing another morally grey act. Thus, the ending serves as a reminder of the complexities of a person’s moral conscience and leaves the audience to empathize with Tom and Eddie despite their questionable actions.

What Happened to Tom’s Wife?

Early in the film, viewers learn of the tragedy that has shaped the life of Tom and his daughter. It is established that Tom’s wife has passed away, but we do not learn the details of her demise until much later. Tom prefers not to speak about his deceased wife, especially in front of Rose. While Tom’s actions are understandable as he is trying to save Rose from difficult emotions stemming from her mother’s death, the actual circumstances of the tragedy are much more deeply connected to Rose.

During a conversation with Ann, Tom reveals his wife and Rose were alone at home one night. A burglar invaded their house and threatened Tom’s wife and Rose. Tom’s wife tried to resist and was shot twice in the chest. A six-year-old Rose witnessed her mother’s death. However, in the present, Rose does not seem to remember much about the incident. Therefore, it is clear that Tom does not speak about his wife as it could revoke traumatic memories for Rose. The film’s ending serves as a callback to the tragedy as Rose faces a similar situation. This time her father is being held at gunpoint. Nonetheless, Rose acts bravely and shoots Eddie, averting the same outcome as before.

Read More: Best Samuel L. Jackson Movies

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• DVD & Streaming

Code Name: The Cleaner

• Action/Adventure , Comedy , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Cedric the Entertainer as Jake Rodgers; Lucy Liu as Gina; Nicollette Sheridan as Diane

Home Release Date

• Les Mayfield

Distributor

• New Line Cinema

Movie Review

What would you do if you woke up in a hotel room next to a dead FBI agent, a briefcase filled with $250,000 … and you couldn’t remember who you were? That’s the dilemma facing Jake Rodgers in this oddball actioner that adds urban style to a comedic mash-up of The Bourne Supremacy and M:i:III . Is he a janitor at a video game company? Or is he a top-secret agent? Cue the super-cool spy music … but don’t hold your breath.

While fleeing the hotel, Jake runs into Diane, a voluptuous woman who helps him evade police. On their way (home?) to a huge mansion, Diane complains that she can’t believe Jake doesn’t remember her. After all, she is his wife . Jake doesn’t recall much (except for occasional flashbacks involving combat scenes—and his passion for Skittles), but he’s not about to let that stop him from enjoying the good life. “I’m rich, I have a big house and I’m married to a white woman,” he tells himself. “Am I Lionel Richie?” See what I mean about not holding your breath?

Dreams of the good life are, of course, shattered when he overhears Diane’s nefarious plans for him and must make a hasty retreat. When Jake renews his quest to uncover his lost identity and the reason someone apparently wants him dead , clues lead him to video game company DART. While pondering his conundrum at a diner, he discovers that one of the waitresses, Gina, claims to be his girlfriend.

Gina informs him that he is, in fact, a lowly janitor at DART. Or is he? And is she …? Ongoing war-time flashbacks make it impossible to know for sure, as do cryptic phone messages from a programmer (friend?) named Riley. What is apparent is that for some reason, Jake has hidden a secret microchip (if only he could remember where it is!) that Diane and DART CEO Eric Hauk will stop at nothing to retrieve.

Positive Elements

As the tangled plot of Code Name: The Cleaner unfolds, Jake and Gina alternately come to one another’s rescue. Protecting America from espionage proves to be a driving motivator for at least two of the characters.

Sexual Content

A doctor suggests that one way to help jog Jake’s memory is to arouse him. Accordingly, Diane dons extremely skimpy lingerie and proceeds to sway seductively in front of and on top of him in a long, risqué scene full of lingering camera shots. (An outtake at the end includes more such footage.) Other scenes picture Diane in revealing outfits exposing a lot of cleavage.

That pretty much sums up the approach this film takes to sex. We see several of Jake’s sleazy fantasies, one of which involves Gina and Diane, lingerie and lots of soap suds. And we endure handfuls of visual and verbal innuendoes, double entendres (hinting at oral sex, among other things), lustful stares, randy come-ons, etc.

When Jake wakes at the beginning of the film, he assumes the person he’s in bed with is a woman—and the filmmakers go crazy with the “big joke.” Similarly, a mix-up has Jake meeting a homosexual man who was hoping to rendezvous with someone he met in an online chat room. The man discloses his vulgar user name and the one of the man he was planning to meet. And he’s disappointed when Jake isn’t interested in him. Elsewhere, another comedic sequence repeatedly conflates a man’s request to be shot with a gun (don’t ask) with a request for gay sex.

A backside-slapping gag involves Jake and an elderly woman—who smiles approvingly. Jake also slaps Diane’s posterior a couple of times. And he “reads” Jet ; moviegoers see a centerfold image of a woman in a bikini.

Violent Content

The hefty amount of violence in Code Name: The Cleaner is “sanitized” and almost completely bloodless. Several scenes show Hauk’s men pursuing Jake and Gina, two of whom she shoots. (One falls down and the other rolls off the top of her moving car.) Still another henchman flies off the top of Gina’s Saab when she brakes, and he hits and cracks the windshield of another vehicle.

A flashback scene shows the man Jake wakes up with being shot; a small amount of blood is visible on his shirt and face. Jake also dispatches pursuers with a floor-cleaning machine, a “Wet Floor” placard and a mop. (We see their unconscious bodies on the floor.) Several people get kicked or hit in the crotch. One flies through a glass partition (which shatters). Jake gets hit on the head with a lamp (which breaks), walks on broken glass and falls about 20 feet onto a pickup truck topper (which collapses).

More intense than any of those scenes are several martial arts-style battles in the finale. Hauk has a tough fight with several FBI agents, and takes on Gina as well. Then Gina and Diane duel it out, hitting and kicking one another viciously.

War “footage” of Jake and his comrades shows them firing automatic weapons (though we never witness them hitting anyone) amid explosions and burning buildings.

Crude or Profane Language

Jake uses the f-word once and abuses Jesus’ name. Characters employ the s-word about a dozen times, “d–n” and “a–” 20-plus times each, “h—” about 10 times and “b–ch” twice.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Sodium Pentothal, speed, reefer and mai-tais are all mentioned. (The truth serum is injected, causing Jake to writhe on the ground.) In a conversation with a female co-worker it’s suggested that Jake got drunk and perhaps touched her inappropriately at a party. Jake describes himself as “James Bond on Red Bull.”

Other Negative Elements

A janitor raps about his life, rhyming various phrases related to cleaning toilets—he calls himself “the dirty clean rapper.” To escape from Diane’s house, Jake steals one of her cars.

Cedric the Entertainer as an action star? If you think such a suggestion strains credulity, well, you’re right. Even with the supposedly comedic elements of this farcical, faux-spy story tossed in to help us suspend disbelief, it’s a lot to swallow. Dull one-liners are supposed to amp up the humor factor but they don’t connect. The wink-wink, nudge-nudge action clichés Cedric and Co. ape don’t seem satirical or smart, just tired. In a sentence, virtually every aspect of this tale has been told somewhere else—and better.

But if uninspired plot and execution aren’t enough to warn you away, several content issues should be. Characters spew almost 75 profanities, while Nicolette Sheridan’s lingerie-clad shimmying and her sudsy “battle” with Lucy Liu in the final fight offer yet another illustration of how the strip club-meets-Victoria’s Secret mentality has all but taken over the comedy genre.

Other sexual material suggests anonymous homosexual encounters and octogenarian S&M shenanigans. The tagline to the film touts, “In a dirty world, he’s our only hope.” It should read instead, “In a dirty world, he’s no help.” Nothing qualifies as fresh or sanitary in Code Name: The Cleaner —the one irony I suspect the film’s creators didn’t intend.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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‘The Stranger’ Review: Somewhere Over the Freeway

In this tense thriller on Hulu, Maika Monroe plays Clare, a Kansas transplant in Los Angeles who parallels Dorothy in Oz.

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By Natalia Winkelman

“The Stranger” is a tense if tidy thriller that chronicles a ride-hail driver’s journey to surveillance hell and back. Her survival against all odds mirrors that of the movie itself: The film’s footage originally premiered in 13 short-form episodes in 2020 on the streaming service Quibi, several months before it shut down .

The recut version (on Hulu) bears little trace of its earlier form, although its life span across algorithm-driven streaming companies does cast the villain’s tech preoccupations — “whoever figures out the mathematical formula determining the losers and the winners in life will rule” the world, he declares — in a new, meta light.

Written and directed by Veena Sud (“The Killing”), the film follows Clare (Maika Monroe), a recent transplant to Los Angeles who falls into a freeway nightmare after her ride-hail passenger, Carl (Dane DeHaan), identifies himself as a serial killer. He claims he will murder her unless she tells him a good story.

If this opening sounds cliché, the film at least seems aware of the pitfalls. Sud creates parallels between Clare in Hollywood and Dorothy in Oz, assigning Clare a Kansan back story, a yapping terrier and a guileless attitude. And DeHaan embodies the tech-savvy Carl as a pasty, smirking male chauvinist who is sillier than he is scary.

It follows as something of a surprise, when, over the course of the second act, the film builds to a deeply agitated mood. Sud pulls off the tonal shift by keeping Carl largely offscreen; his looming absence, alongside Monroe’s knack for portraying paranoia, simmers with menace.

The Stranger Not Rated. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. Watch on Hulu.

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Nowhere Special

When John, a thirty-five-year-old window cleaner, is given only a few months to live, he attempts to find a new, perfect family for his three-year-old son, determined to shield him from the ... Read all When John, a thirty-five-year-old window cleaner, is given only a few months to live, he attempts to find a new, perfect family for his three-year-old son, determined to shield him from the terrible reality of the situation. When John, a thirty-five-year-old window cleaner, is given only a few months to live, he attempts to find a new, perfect family for his three-year-old son, determined to shield him from the terrible reality of the situation.

• Uberto Pasolini
• James Norton
• Daniel Lamont
• Carol Moore
• 57 User reviews
• 58 Critic reviews
• 72 Metascore
• 5 wins & 8 nominations

• Mrs. Parkes

• (as Siobhan McSweeney)

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia James Norton would often visit Belfast and spend time playing with toys in Daniel Lamont's bedroom. He said Daniel would visit the set and be excited to act alongside him because of it.

Michael : What's adopt, daddy?

User reviews 57

• atractiveeyes
• Sep 7, 2021
• How long will Nowhere Special be? Powered by Alexa
• April 26, 2024 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• Close to You
• Northern Ireland, UK
• Redwave Films
• Digital Cube
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 36 minutes

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