I saw Cleaner. I enjoyed it. Although it was obviously trying too hard to be just like Die Hard, and trying too hard to be very different from Die Hard, both at the same time. I hope that makes sense.
Having said, I feel the need to rant a bit. I sometimes watch review vids by Nerdrotic and Critical Drinker among a few others. They sometimes have valid points. But sometimes it's hard to take them seriously. A trap they set up for themselves is that if a film focuses on a non-WASP race, then it MUST be woke garbage, or if the lead is an action girl, she MUST be a girlboss Mary Sue.
Ok, sometimes the dart throw is valid, but not always.
Rey of Star Wars absolutely is a girlboss Mary Sue. Figures out the Millenium Falcon in an instant, starts out-Forcing and out-light sabering Kylo Ren without any training, etc.
But I thought her character in Cleaner worked and was well thought out. Has some issues from parental abuse, looks out for her autistic brother, got kicked out of the army because of those issues, but explains the skills she uses to take the eco-terrorists. But at least C Drinker has reflexively dunked all over her.
But here's where their MO sometimes becomes a trap they put in themselves in, and I wonder if they're even aware of it.
Let's imagine that the first two Alien movies were released now instead of 1979 and 1986. Would they be dunking all over Ellen Ripley as a girlboss Mary Sue before she even had the chance to become iconic? Gives sassy lines like "they can bill me" and "I'm gonna make sure they nail you to the wall!" to evil slimy male Burke, takes over for an incompetent Gorman who craps the bed and saves the day, mows down hundreds of Aliens with a pulse rifle and a flamethrower after just a few minutes of training from Hicks. The argument could be made that Ripley actually checks a lot of the boxes that Nerdrotic and Drinker use to label a lot of action girls as girlboss Mary Sues.
End of rant, just had to express my thoughts on this sort of thing after ruminating for a while.
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