Renny Harlin's comeback?

Cleaner (2007)

Being a Finn I always take pride of what Finnish movie makers achieve internationally, so of course I was interested to see what Renny Harlin had come up with this time. Thou my hopes weren't too high as he has made only totally pointless crap the past 10 years. Maybe that was why this one took me by surprise and actually was quite entertaining. The start was close to brilliant and it really gave some high hopes of things to come. Too bad it didn't end up to live to those expectations, the plot turned out to be too predictable and really nothing brought this up from the average of it's genre. Don't get me wrong here, it wasn't a bad movie at all, the cast was great, the directing was solid and the script, even thou it's predictability, was quite good. About the cast, none of them made a performance of their lives, but they still did a solid job. Especially was great to see Samuel L. Jackson part from his "bad ass motherfucker" image and actually portray some real emotions, even thou for a brief while. In addition to Jackson, Ed Harris is the one to watch here, he makes a great performance as a cop who has quite complex motives. Even Eva Mendes, who I personally think can't act at all, does a fairly ok performance as the story's femme fatale. Luis Guzman has a too small role for him to shine, but still he makes it work quite nicely. Another Finn Peter Franzen has a small role in the film too, he has only a few lines, but he does beat up Jackson with a flashlight which was quite a brilliant scene. In the end all the pieces of the puzzle are there and the movie flows like it should, but you just have this feeling that you've seen this all before. It's certainly the best of Renny from this century and made me a believer that one day he will make a masterpiece. Maybe from Mannerheim?
62%


Lets take a quick look at some of his earlier films to see what has happened.



The Covenant (2006)

Teen drama and supernatural powers. Absolutely horrid crap.
10%



Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

I'm guessing this was made in a hurry and it shows as the movie falls apart right after the first few minutes. Totally unnecessary prequel and a totally unnecessary movie all together.
15%



Mindhunters (2004)

This had it's moments, at times it was even close to being interesting. But at the end it fell to the Renny syndrome and lost it's interest around the middle of the film.
35%



Driven (2001)

This one deserves a special note as it is probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen. But still it wasn't bad enough to be entertaining. Definitely worst of the Renny films and giving this movie any points would be an insult to all of the bad movies out there.
0%



Deep Blue Sea (1999)

The idea of the movie is so ridiculous that it's almost brilliant. This turned out to be quite decent action packed thriller. But it fails to bring anything new to the table and falls just below the average mark.
48%



The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

Renny at his best, great cast, great action and more one-liners that you can count.
89%



Cutthroat Island (1995)

Far better than it's reputation. Was a good adventure flick and I wasn't bored a bit watching it. It surely didn't rock my world, but definitely solid good entertainment.
64%



Cliffhanger (1993)

Hard action at the mountains with some brilliant scenes. Beautiful to watch but sadly in the end it falls into the average action flick department.
59%



The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)

Time hasn't been kind to this one. The repetition of the jokes tends to annoy and the jokes don't seem to have any punch in them anymore. I really loved this movie when it came out, but now I got quite bored.
25%



Die Hard 2 (1990)

With TLKG the best of Renny. Not as good as the first part, but still highly entertaining violent action extravaganza.
80%



A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

One of the best sequels on the Elm Street series, thou the competition isn't too fierce either. Some good scenes, but the movie falls apart in too many places to keep the interest up for the whole movie.
39%



Prison (1988)

This is one of the less known movies of Renny Harlin, but it's certainly not the worst. The script and the acting leave a lot to wish for, but all in all this thriller has it's moments.
50%



Born American (1986)

The script is silly, the acting is horrid and the action is clumsy. All in all a fairly ok effort for a first movie, but wouldn't really watch it again.
29%