‘Cleaner’ Won’t Make Anyone Forget ‘Die Hard’

Martin Campbell’s “Cleaner” begins with promise, especially because it stars Daisy Ridley.

The establishing scenes are all about how Ridley’s character, Joey Locke, became skilled at sneaking out of her home during a rough childhood.

In present day, Locke is a window washer for a skyscraper.

There’s also a subplot about her troubled relationship with her brother, Michael, played by Matthew Tuck, but the appeal here is seeing Ridley suspended high above the earth and cleaning the windows of a massive building.

During one of her nighttime assignments, the building is taken over by terrorists. The leader of the operation is played by Clive Owen, the situation is dire, only one person can possibly stop the bad guys, who have taken hostages and- oh no.

It’s a rip-off of “Die Hard” (1988).

Unlike the best “Die Hard” rip-offs, such as “Under Siege” (1992), “Cliffhanger” (1993), “Executive Decision” (1996), “Cleaner” is such a non-starter, it made me question why Ridley, Owen and especially Campbell wanted to make this.

Considering that Campbell’s prior works includes two pivotal 007 thrillers, “Goldeneye” (1995) and “Casino Royale” (2006), as well as top-notch popcorn thrillers “The Mask of Zorro” (1998) and “Vertical Limit” (2000), it’s a wonder why he’d attempt a middling rip-off of one of the most iconic and still-wildly popular action movies of all time.

The last film I caught of Campbell’s was “The Protégé” (2021), the failed Maggie Q vehicle that wasted her time (as well as Michael Keaton’s and Samuel L. Jackson’s) and ours. Campbell’s latest is a similar miss – it’s too polished to be a called a cheap rush job but too underwhelming to take seriously.

The dialogue is full of cliches, like “nobody gets a free pass.”

Coming from the director of two exceptional 007 thrillers, “Cleaner” is minor league. It has been made with competence and energy, but that’s it. It’s busy but not exciting. Three writers penned the film, who presumably took turns cutting and pasting from “Die Hard’s” screenplay.

The stakes have never been higher. Here’s an EXCLUSIVE look at Daisy Ridley in #Cleaner, in theaters TODAY! pic.twitter.com/FM2QE7Jap4

— IMDb (@IMDb) February 21, 2025

I wish Ridley’s take on a Bruce Willis role could at least dumb fun (Rey Hard? Yippe Kai Yay Mr. Skywalker?) but this is a film entry Ridley will probably want her fans to forget, especially coming after her acclaimed work in “Young Woman in the Sea” (2024).

Admittedly, Ripley gives a strong performance, even while sporting a bad Peter Pan haircut, but she’s been much better elsewhere.

Owen is a poor substitute for “Die Hard’s” Alan Rickman. The last time I remember even seeing Owen in a movie was Ang Lee’s “Gemini Man” (2019). Roles like the one Owen is stuck playing in “Cleaner” are beneath an actor who was one of the biggest stars of the early 2000’s, a former 007 candidate who still has “Children of Men” (2006) as his calling card.

If the point is that Ridley is actually dangling outside that office building, I never felt the danger. The scenes of her outside the skyscraper are filmed and edited in ways that downplay the height and gravity.

If Ridley is really doing Tom Cruise-like stunts, the movie isn’t selling it.

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We sat down with DAISY RIDLEY to discuss her early acting days, the great challenge of her new #StarWars movie, and hanging off buildings for ‘Cleaner.’ Tune in here: https://t.co/AxcuPrPgQs pic.twitter.com/Qy7D3Imj8u

— In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast (@InTheEnvelope) February 27, 2025

The painfully generic score by Tom Hodge could be used on any middle-of-the-road TV crime series.

The premise reminded me of a famously unmade Jackie Chan project about a Twin Towers window washer. That production was cancelled after 9/11.

RELATED: WHY ‘DIE HARD’ STILL MATTERS

The promise of “Cleaner” is botched from the get-go – it takes too long to get Ridley’s character into the building and the gradual “Die Hard” thievery only underlines how masterful John McTiernan’s 1988 thriller still is decades later.

To say the least, “The Towering Inferno” (1974) is preferable, though the idiotic but entertaining 2018 Dwayne Johnson vehicle “Skyscraper” is also so much better than “Cleaner.”

Why am I even giving this junk one-star? There’s one genuinely cool villain death and the end credit song “Vertigo” by Griff is really good.

One Star (out of five)

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