Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Samuel L Jackson, Ed Harris, Eva Mendes, Luis Guzman, Keke Palmer,
Christa Campbell, Robert Forster, Ritchie Montgomery | Written by Matthew Aldrich
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £15.99 |DVD Region 2 | Runtime 85 minutes | Directed by Renny Harlin
“Death is tragic ... but it's also big business.” That's the opinion of Tom Cutler (Jackson) and he should know. A former cop, he's now a cleaner, the person you call to sort out the mess, gunge and bodily fluids when somebody dies, be it through natural causes, weird accident or foul means.
It is the classic nasty job that somebody has to do. He may claim that he doesn't clean up blood, he cleans up anger, heartache and grief. But, given that this is a Renny Harlin film, it's mostly blood... and indeterminate bits of tissue.
The problems come when Tom is called by a Detective Jones to clean up the remains of a homicide investigation. Tom does his usual high-quality thing, the place is spotless. Unfortunately Detective Jones doesn't exist. Nor does the homicide investigation. But the homicide itself? That's very real.
The bigger problems come with the likely victim's identity. It appears to be Norcut, the husband of Ann (Mendes), and a man intertwined with a corrupt cop scandal... a scandal that could implicate Tom, for a regrettable, but understandable, incident in his past.
And guess what? This is a solid three star thriller, like so many of the movies going straight to DVD at the moment. It's not going to revive Harlin's career — he seems to have given up on that, frankly — but it's certainly well made. There's also more nuance to the plot, and more moral shades of grey, than this synoposis might suggest, and it certainly helps having Jackson, Ed Harris (as Tom's former partner) and Guzman (as the investigating cop) to act their way over the cracks.
EXTRAS * Subtitles. Which aren't so much an extra as a legal requirement, surely?