The Cleaner

I caught myself falling to sleep during "code name: Cleaner." The previews of other movies were better than this movie. Lucy Liu is the only redemption but she cannot carry this weak movie. The story seems to have been written by 5th graders making it up as they went. Cedric the Entertainer tries but he was given a weak script. Lucy Liu is a cutesy thing. She is a pleasure to watch, but the writers did not write enough good stuff for her. Nicolette Sheridan's role is so bad that her bloopers at the end of the movie are her best lines. Speaking of bloopers, it was not only Nicolette but all the major players who shined in the bloopers. The bloopers outshone the movie. The bloopers proved that the actors could improvise better material than the writers could write. Those fews morsels that you saw on the previews? Well, those were the highlights of the movie and there was not much more. This movie could have been made into a nice 10 minute short story. The emotional payoffs were weak. The plot is contrived. A contrived plot can be forgiven if it is the springboard to a good movie. This contrived plot did not deliver. I could think of so many funnier, more entertaining things to do with Lucy Liu and Cedric. Lucy and Cedric tried their best. Lucy Liu's role is similar to the role that she played in Lucky Slevin. She played the cute, sexy, nicely dressed very lovable soft core * object - except in "Cleaner" they took away any overt sexuality and they dressed her more like a nun than the sexy woman that we love. There was potential in this movie. Cedric and Lucy have proved track records. I went to the movie craving more of what I have seen in prior movies with these established stars, but the directors/ writers did not know what to do with these stars. It reminds me of a person who does not know how do drive a stick shift. They did not know what they were doing. It was pathetic. Winter 2006/ 2007 has been a sad season for movies. I came home disappointed from this movie. I got more entertainment from YouTube and reruns on the internet.

For a James Bond prototype, this isn't that bad. One of the few that deserve more attention then they really get. The only other 'Bond' prototype that is as funny as this one would be Johnny English. Yes, we all have seen the plot, but it's the twist to the storyline that keeps it interesting. This time our hero wakes up in a hotel room, on the bed next to the dead man's body. It starts out more of a mystery, then quickens the pace just before the half way mark comes. Cedric is clearly at the top of his game both pyhsically and in his jokes. For sure he does a better job at keeping his material censored, heck, depending on the child, this could even be a kids movie.

I don't know why some people slander this movie. They should get some antidepressants or something - somethings not right with these people anyway. This movie is well made, has good actors doing a great job, interesting (but somewhat predictable) plot! It has pretty much everything you want from a nice action/comedy movie and I certainly enjoyed the movie a lot. I almost gave it a seven but I'm a cheap b*stard - and even if it's closer to a seven than six - it falls just short of it... =) I just made up my mind - why the h*ll not...

We've seen this premise before in countless comedies in the past, an ordinary man with amnesia who finds himself ducking bullets and has to figure out what's going on. It's possible that it could have successfully been done again, but this particular effort doesn't make the grade. I'll start with the actors. Cedric The Entertainer does seem to be trying at times, and sometimes he comes across as a likable goof, but more often he comes across as loud-mouthed and abrasive. Lucy Liu has a thankless role as the woman who helps him, and Mark Dacascos is totally wasted as the villain, even though he does get to show off some martial arts (which are badly choreographed and directed.) But the main problem with the movie is the script and direction. The movie contains some blatant product plugs, several instances where the action comes to a halt to show off some "hilarious" comedy (such as the Dutch dance sequence), and an ending that does not know when to quit. And the outtakes shown at the end are even less funny than the scripted gags that preceded them!

I saw the movie last night. I am a fan of Cedric The Entertainer. He is so funny! Nicolette and Lucy Liu added to this cast made it a dynamic movie. I liked how the story line kept you guessing on "Jake" the role that Cedric played and what was his true identity and job. And to see him play not only a comedic role as he usually does, but a role filled with action.........Loved it! I would recommend this movie for all to see. I liked how it was not filled with lots of cursing, explicit sex scenes and lots of blood and guts. Yes there was some fighting etc, but I found it more in a humorous way it was done. Ciao, Leslie

Minimum of 10 lines?!?! Why the **** would i waste 10 lines on this awful movie?????????? I saw it with a good friend while we were waiting for her sister's lame party to end... We watched it cause it was pretty much the only movie we haven't watched that sounded like it wouldn't be a total waste of time and money... IT WAS A MISTAKE WATCHING THAT MOVIE!!!!!!!!! Waste of time and money. It made no sense at all and it was just plain boring... I repeat, WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY... My friend and i laugh very easily (i laughed at a drama movie once, an action film and more...)and we barely laughed once...!!!!!!!! DON'T WATCH IT!!!!!!!!!!!11 FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!!!!!!!! I'M WARNING YOU....

Cedric the Entertainer is certainly a talented comedian, but with a script this boring and stupid, even he couldn't breathe life into this horrible mess of a comedy. Despite the bad reviews, I was still slightly eager to check out the movie. The year has just started and already I have a candidate for the worst movies of 2007. The spy comedy has been done to death. And the fact that the writers had nothing new to bring to the table didn't help. I must've chuckled a total of 5 times, and received no laughs whatsoever. As the movie (thankfully) approached its conclusion, I jokingly thought to myself, "This is probably one of those flicks that contains a gag reel over the closing credits." Well...I was right! I frequently disapprove of gag reels over the credits of good movies. When you show a gag reel after a bad movie, it's like rubbing salt on a wound. The only part of this movie worth checking out is Nicolette Sheridan doing an erotic dance in her lingerie. If the movie ever makes it to HBO On Demand, I suggest you just fast-forward to that particular scene, mute the sound, and watch it in a loop. Yes, it's that friggin' hot! As for the comedy, expect your usual assortment of bland, crude, sitcom-style gags. If you can't see the punchlines to each gag coming a mile away, you might want to consider getting a cat scan. In one scene, a janitor (one of Cedric's co-workers) is interrogated by a federal agent in a restroom. The agent points a gun at him, urging him to give him some information about Cedric's character. The janitor is an aspiring rapper, and goes on a whole rant about how he wants to be shot, since he wants to be the first rapper to write his songs while in a coma. He bends over, begging the agent to shoot him in the backside. The agent eventually leaves the restroom, as the janitor keeps screaming out, "Put a bullet in my a**! Put it in my a**! Put it in my as**!" And--guess what--one of his fellow janitors strolls into the restroom as he continues to scream out, "Put it in my a**!" Unless you're a teenager who will laugh at all things scatological, you might want to consider putting a bullet in your own rear end for finding an outrageously stupid gag like that funny. My God! How screenwriters actually get paid to write this crap still boggles my mind! A man of Cedric's talent is capable of doing much, much more, as he's shown in the "Barbershop" movies. But when given rotten material like this, he attempts to mend each failed joke with improvisation, which in turn makes the jokes even more annoying.

With perhaps any other contemporary actor in the lead role -- Jake Rodgers, aka, The Cleaner (Cedric the Entertainer) -- this film would have been a total bust. As some of the other folks commenting on here have already mentioned, the storyline is both contrived and in many ways superconventionally executed -- so much so that it risks becoming one long cliché. If you're looking for stimulating American cinema, or even a good action movie or espionage thriller, you should see something else. What saves CODE NAME: THE CLEANER for me, I think, is the utter preposterousness of casting Cedric the Entertainer as an amnesiac slowly convincing himself (and, supposedly, the viewer) that he is actually a secret agent working for the American government. I love Lucy Liu, but this is not her (best) film -- she plays more or less the same character she has played elsewhere (including the borderline racist trope that, since she is of Asian descent, she must be a masterful practitioner of at least one martial art) -- although her performance is true, and is enhanced comically by her playing opposite Cedric. None of the rest of the characters or actors -- including Nicollette Sheridan -- does much for the film, and the writing and direction are mediocre at best. But Cedric the Entertainer trying to convince us he's a superspy? That's worth the rental.

I was expecting this movie to be horrible, but it wasn't quite that bad. It actually had a few funny and amusing moments. When Jake runs into Diane, played by the hot Nicole Sheridan, and she says she is his wife, his reaction is pretty funny. " I have a hot white wife." And then takes him to his supposed home, and its a huge mansion. He keeps having flashbacks of combat/fighting and has convinced himself he's a secret agent. But we learn he is just an avid video game player. That part was amusing. The plot is silly but it definitely is not one of the worst movies of the year. 14 year olds will probable like it. FINAL VERDICT: This is nothing to go out of your way to see. But if you catch it on TV and want 90 minutes of mindless entertainment you may want to check it out.

Watching this movie, I kept thinking they couldn't afford to have a real script written, and must have run out of money when they were about 2/3 of the way through, and couldn't finish editing it. Not to mention, they probably couldn't afford Martin Lawrence for the lead role, so they filled it with Cedric the Entertainer, who does better in supporting roles. Cedric does have several funny scenes, though. The plot is completely unintelligible, and undeveloped, but based on the genre you can predict most of the action. It's the ever-popular "hero has something secret the bad guys want, so they can sell it to terrorists for a fortune, but it's missing." Not to mention, the scenes or "shticks" that have been better done elsewhere. For example, every time Cedric tried to be funny with judo moves, I kept thinking that he ripped that off from Martin, who does it much better. There is a brief cat-fight scene that is far inferior to the one in Undercover Brother (which is an excellent movie, and much funnier overall).