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Reviews Counted:78
Fresh:3
Rotten:75
Average Rating:2.9/10
Consensus: Code Name: The Cleaner is a limp action/comedy flick that alternates between lame, worn-out jokes and cheesy martial arts.
Theatrical Release:07-12-2007
Synopsis: Cedric the Entertainer (JOHNSON FAMILY VACATION, BARBERSHOP) stars as Jake, a bumbling amnesiac, in the spy-parody caper CODE NAME: THE CLEANER. Waking up next to a dead FBI agent and a briefcase... [More]
Starring: Cedric the Entertainer, Lucy Liu, Nicollette Sheridan, Elizabeth Hurley
Director: Les Mayfield
Aside from Cedric's admittedly appealing persona -- he's always watchable, even in dreck like this -- there's absolutely nothing to recommend The Cleaner, not the putative comedy nor the action, which kicks in only at the end.
The humor is too adult for children and the plot far too childish for most adults; in fact, everything about the film is really too silly to warrant much consideration.
It's comedian DeRay Davis and sassy actress Niecy Nash, who earn a few laughs in small supporting roles. Still, any resemblance to real entertainment is strictly coincidental.
For its first half-hour, Cedric is the whole show.
The good news is, Cedric can make even eating Skittles sort of funny -- and he easily saves this movie from being a wreck.
The story is incidental to the comedy, but it is on the level of humor where the movie completely breaks down. It is almost never funny. Cedric has a few funny scenes, mostly when he is just allowed to joke, with the plot momentarily forgotten.
Nicollette Sheridan, playing a femme fatale, is all hard body and desperate cheekbones; you just want to give the poor woman a malted, and some acting lessons.
The story keeps stopping dead to deliver product placement for Jake's favorite brands of junk food. There must be a better way to work Skittles into the script than to have Jake keep saying things like, 'I love Skittles.'
Cedric the Entertainer doesn't really act here so much as riffs, as if he's working out the kinks in a misconceived stand-up routine. Some of his ad-libs are funny, but you know you're in trouble when the outtakes are funnier than the film as a whole.
There's potential in the story, but who was the casting genius that thought roly-poly Cedric could ever be mistaken for a man of action, or a possible love interest for Lucy Liu?
The idea is that given the basic premise, the comedian will fill in the gaps with his own bits of business. Cedric is hardly up to the task. Though he's a scene stealer in other people's movies, he relies on tired reactions ("heeellll naw" is his mantra).
A faux thriller plot has something to do with a stolen computer chip. The chip isn't the only thing missing from this tepid concoction. You may be hard pressed to find real laughs, with Cedric proving more affable than funny.
It's Memento for dummies. But to this movie's credit, I couldn't follow it, either.
Cedric the Entertainer's artless performance deadens what could have been a much funnier comedy.
Top CriticNot nearly bad enough to be truly enjoyable
...the filmmakers are so busy churning their not very interesting plot that they forget to let Cedric be funny.
This dire comedy deserves to be dropped in a vat of solvent to remove its stink.
If Cedric The Entertainer keeps making movies like this, The Honeymooners and Johnson Family Vacation, he may really have to work as a janitor.
Cedric might just want to clean this one right off his resume.
The Cleaner offers the viewer a dream sequence with Sheridan and Liu fighting in a bubble bath, but in the best Les Mayfield manner, it only lasts for a brief, flickering moment. What isn't over in a moment? The rest of this dud.
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