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Code Name: The Cleaner (2007)
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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-13 [See Full Rating] for sexual content, crude humor and some violence
Runtime: 84 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Jan 5, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $8,104,069
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
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Reviews for Code Name: The Cleaner
Although comprised of lowest-common denominator gags, it’s an oddly hard-to-follow affair, with good and bad FBI agents popping up everywhere and the plot only revealing itself in fits and starts.
The memory of this movie will have left your brain before you walk out of the theater. If you're lucky.
...it's not merely that the script is a sloppy, by-the-numbers action farce; it's more the leaden hand of 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.
too clumsy to be the sophisticated parody of memory-loss films it might have been, too bland for its action sequences to kick any ass, too dumbed-down to make much out of the clashes of race, class and gender at the heart of its fish-out-of-water comedy
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.
January is usually not the time to expect much high art among new releases, but this is an especially limp star vehicle.
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.
Not the kind of movie you need to rush out and see, but if you're sitting at home trying to decide between doing your own cleaning and watching The Cleaner, I'd pick the movie.
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.
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.
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.
From its weak premise to its boring action to its unpleasant jokes, this movie fulfills the worst expectations of January releases: it's awful.
...the filmmakers are so busy churning their not very interesting plot that they forget to let Cedric be funny.
The one laugh is in the production notes, where director Les Mayfield claims this is a comic take on the Jason Bourne movies. As if.
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 14% 14% | The Ugly Truth |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 86% 86% | A Christmas Tale |
| 60% 60% | Paper Heart |
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