There's some pretty good improvised shtick from DeRay Davis as a wacky janitor. But these are small pleasures in a movie that never really generates any serious laughs.
Comment
03/07/07
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Code Name: The Cleaner (2007)
11
%
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Reviews Counted:19
Fresh:2
Rotten:17
Average Rating:3.5/10
Consensus: Code Name: The Cleaner is a limp action/comedy flick that alternates between lame, worn-out jokes and cheesy martial arts.
Theatrical Release: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... [More]
Starring: Cedric the Entertainer, Lucy Liu, Nicollette Sheridan, Elizabeth Hurley
Director: Les Mayfield
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Reviews for Code Name: The Cleaner
1 - 19 (sorted by date)
Top CriticGet Lucy Liu better roles!
01/10/07
Top CriticHow do films this stale and generic continue to get made, let alone with topflight talent? Cedric has been stealing scenes from bigger names for nearly a decade; he deserves better than a few amusingly-improvised minutes at the end of his own movie.
01/05/07
Top CriticAside 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.
01/05/07
Top CriticThe good news is, Cedric can make even eating Skittles sort of funny -- and he easily saves this movie from being a wreck.
01/05/07
Top CriticNicollette 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.
01/05/07
Top CriticThe 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.'
01/05/07
Top CriticThe 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).
01/05/07
Top CriticA 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.
01/05/07
Top CriticIt's Memento for dummies. But to this movie's credit, I couldn't follow it, either.
01/05/07
Top CriticCedric the Entertainer's artless performance deadens what could have been a much funnier comedy.
01/05/07
Top CriticJanuary is usually not the time to expect much high art among new releases, but this is an especially limp star vehicle.
01/04/07
Top CriticCode Name: The Cleaner offers no surprises but is good-natured and funny.
01/04/07
Top CriticThis 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.
01/04/07
Top CriticCedric 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.
01/04/07
Top CriticThere are better action scenes in marionette shows.
01/04/07
Top CriticFrom 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.
01/04/07
Top CriticDirector 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.
01/04/07
Top CriticExcept 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.
01/04/07
Top Critic1 - 19 (sorted by date)
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