It's not often that a 90 minute film could lose twenty minutes and still end up with an identical result, but Code Name: The Cleaner does pull that off. If only someone had made [director Les] Mayfield aware of that somewhere along the line.
Code Name: The Cleaner (2007)
Tomatometer
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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.
Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for sexual content, crude humor and some violence
Runtime: 84 mins
Genre: Comedies
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... 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 full of money, and with flashbacks to his combat training, Jake suspects he's actually an undercover operative. He comes into contact with numerous characters who add to his confusion: Diane (Nicollette Sheridan), a blond bombshell claiming to be his wife; Gina (Lucy Liu), a feisty waitress who insists she's his girlfriend; and employees of a computer technology company who are adamant that he's a janitor. The film escalates into a race against the clock--while piecing his past together Jake realizes he holds a valuable secret and must thwart a group of dangerous agents who are after him. Fun for the whole family, CODE NAME: THE CLEANER includes some hilarious moments and showcases Cedric's endearing comic appeal as the anti-James Bond. Liu (KILL BILL, CHARLIE'S ANGELS) gets to show off her well-known fighting moves and DeRay Davis (SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS) is a scene stealer as a fast-talking janitor/wannabe-rapper. Although the plot drags a bit, there is plenty of fast-paced action and steamy content thanks to Sheridan and Liu, whose provocative scenes add heavy doses of sex appeal to the film. [More]
Starring: Cedric the Entertainer, Lucy Liu, Nicollette Sheridan, Elizabeth Hurley
Starring: Cedric the Entertainer, Lucy Liu, Nicollette Sheridan, Elizabeth Hurley, Callum Keith Rennie, Mark Dacascos, De Ray Davis, Will Patton
Director: Les Mayfield
Director: Les Mayfield
Producer: Brett Ratner, Jay Stern, Eric C. Rhone, John Cheng
Composer: George S. Clinton
Studio: New Line Cinema
Reviews for Code Name: The Cleaner
January is usually not the time to expect much high art among new releases, but this is an especially limp star vehicle.
Code Name: The Cleaner offers no surprises but is good-natured and funny.
This implausible plot full of holes does pave the way for a series of Cedric the Entertainer skits and physical gags. None of these is very funny. A few are painfully unfunny.
Cedric the Entertainer gets hit on the head and loses his memory in Code Name: The Cleaner, a condition likely to be desired by anyone foolish enough to sit through Les Mayfield's comedy.
A bunch of small disasters, collected together and fed to Cedric the Entertainer.
Watching Code Name: The Cleaner is like staring into a dark, uneventful abyss.
Cedric the Entertainer, whose standup comedy act is utterly endearing, is hung out to dry in this feeble spy comedy. It is not only pitched at 12-year-olds, it was apparently made by them.
The Cleaner is an apt title for a Cedric the Entertainer movie because, once again, he's stuck cleaning up the mess some hack screenwriter left him.
From past experience, viewers know that Cedric the Entertainer can be very funny. While there are times when Code Name: The Cleaner highlights his comedic abilities, there aren't enough of them.
Director Les Mayfield can only do so much with the anemic, obvious script by Robert Adetuyi and George Gallo. And while his limited action sequences are very solid, this is a comedy, and within it he doesn't do much for his actors.
Except for a couple of Cedric’s ad-libs, which are funnier in the closing-credit outtakes than in the movie itself, the whole thing is just lame and inane.
Somewhere, John Candy and Chris Farley are high-fivin' each other that they died before headlining this stinker.
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