B-MOVIE OF THE MONTH - GULAG (TV 1985)

This month B-Movie Gazette dives into the prison genre and who doesn't like a good prison flick? Gulag is an extremely well-produced TV movie originally made for HBO before wandering out to obscurity-land. David Keith is in top form as a sportscaster and while covering an event in Moscow is framed by the KGB. Unable to prove his innocence a prison escape is now inevitable, just how will he do it? Malcolm McDowell co-stars, this is a good one folks! 2.75 stars/2.75

Sunday, May 22, 2022

SAMUEL L JACKSON IS A "CLEANER" (2007) - NOT THE KIND THAT WEARS AN APRON, THE KIND THAT CLEANS UP CRIME SCENES

 

From the director of Die Hard 2 comes this tidy little thriller about a crime scene cleaner who slowly starts to realize he's becoming part of a cover-up. The first portion of the movie sets up our characters showing Tom cleaning up at his various crime scenes, he's a single dad with a teenage daughter. One day he does a job at a mansion and leaves his key by accident. When he goes back the next day to retrieve it, the owner of the house (Eva Mendes) seems to know nothing about the clean-up job and claims nothing ever happened at the house. This puts the plot in motion which also involves, yep, a couple of corrupt cops. Played excellently by Ed Harris and Luis Guzman. 

The film has a very slight but tangible noir feeling about it and the production design is quite nice, the vibe of the film feeling like the clean-ups themselves - quick, precise, and wrapped up. I like Ed Harris a lot here. While he can certainly carry a whole film on his own he always seems to be better in those bit parts. Guzman has more lines than normal for him but is excellent as always. All in all, it's a good little thriller, in my opinion, deserving of higher ratings than most reviews. Cleaner streams on Netflix, Fubu and VOD. 3.0 stars/5

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