Let’s put it this way if you were on the crime scene clean-up crew for a murder, and came across a suitcase packed with cash, what would your next step be? Unless your IQ is in a single-digit range or you’re quite the couch potato and have lived through an action scene or simply seen it all in the movies, don’t think of taking the suitcase home with you.
This, however, doesn’t prevent Siobhan (Melissa Leo), the owner of Good Life Cleaners, and her staff, whom she had taken with her, Alex (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), his girlfriend Megan (Ekaterina Baker), and Chuck (Swen Temmel) from doing just that when they discover a number of millions lying in the chimney of a cleaned house.
That money belongs to Gabriel (Antonio Banderas) who was supposed to pay some dirty police until the robbery went wrong and there were some corpses and this mess was what the three of them were trying to clear. Of course, the police and Gabriel want the money for themselves and do not mind killing for it.
Writers Matthew Rogers (The Survivalist, The Collective) and director Jon Keeyes (Doom Room, Cult Killer) have shown in the press release something else, calling appealing The Clean Up Crew “is a quirky, fun action movie filled with adrenaline and laughs.” Interestingly, it seems to be a roundabout way of saying that The Clean Up Crew is an action comedy. Still, I’d watch it.
Most of that humor comes from Banderas’ portrayal of an odd, Machiavelli-quoting crime lord, whose catchphrase isn’t so much that he’s ‘a little eccentric’ and more like ‘people don’t cross him, because he has that kind of power where it doesn’t matter what you think but you’re also not that smart.’
On the other hand, Alex is also a great foil to him because he’s completely out of the loop and is placed in a scenario that he does not even remotely comprehend. However, Siobhan and Chuck’s part has also been appealingly played out as they hold several cards that would be useful only after the abduction of Megan.
It would be an overstatement to suggest that The Clean Up Crew is action-packed, but given the fact that it is a mid-budget picture, there is a fair amount of action in there. Some of this action is presented in a comical manner, such as the parody of Matrix fight scenes or the inclusion of a split screen. Others, such as the final fight, are played relatively straight.
Rogers and Keeyes write the film in such a way that neither one of the film’s comic moments seems out of place in conjunction with a serious moment. The cast manages to stay in character without the need for overt parody, even when the content becomes far-fetched as far as humor is concerned. That is what I expected from the leads but a surprise was Swen Temmel whom I had only witnessed in supporting roles before, this was a pretty good performance from him. Besides, Matthew Tompkins’ who played a smaller role, distinguished himself as an actor in charge of Gabriel’s henchmen.
For those in the queue for some light-hearted moments, The Clean Up Crew might not disappoint at all. There’s good action and humor in the film that can last the viewer for ninety-five minutes.
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