Code Name: The Cleaner (2007)

Very well executed

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This film begins with a man named "Jake Rogers" (Cedric Antonio Kyles) waking up in a bed at a hotel and finding a dead body right next to him. To make matters even worse, because of a recent head injury he not only doesn't remember how he got into this situation, but he also doesn't remember who he is. However, as luck would have it there is a small attache case with approximately $250,000 in it and an attractive blonde named "Diane" (Nicollette Sheridan) waiting for him in the hotel lobby who claims to be his wife. And to top it off he is apparently quite rich as well. However, that doesn't seem to matter as much as it should because he soon realizes that there are people out to kill him over a computer chip that he doesn't know anything about. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film definitely had some good humor here and there. Likewise, having two attractive actresses like Lucy Liu (as the waitress named "Gina") and the aforementioned Nicollette Sheridan certainly didn't hurt matters either. Having said that, however, I must admit that some of the comedy was rather low-brow and the film could have used a bit more suspense or drama as well. Even so, I thought that this was an okay film for the time spent and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Cedric The Entertainer needs to find better people to work with. He plays a man who wakes up with no memory and in a room with cash and a dead body. He quickly ends up on the run from people who think he knows something as well as the police.Poor direction does in what could have been a good script (you can feel the lack of feeling in how sequences are constructed). More than likely another movie made by committee, where every bit seems to have been put in place by a different person.Worth a look only for those having a slow night with their cable choices.4 out of 10.

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).

I had seen the trailer for "Code Name: The Cleaner". It looked like a spy spoof. However, more importantly it starred very hot movie starlets Lucy Liu and Nichollette Sheridan ("Desperate Housewives"). Gathering from the trailers Cedric the Entertainer's character is suffering from some sort of amnesia. He finds out he has a white wife played by Nichollette Sheridan and a mansion. Cedric the Entertainer says, "I must be Lionel Richie." I thought that was hilarious. However, I am old. Audiences today are more familiar with the arrests and eating habits of his daughter Nicole Richie. Thus, this is the inherent miscalculation of "Code Name: The Cleaner". The movie was probably funny to those making the movie, without a tangible audience in mind. Too bad. I really like Cedric the Entertainer—he is funny. But he is so off the mark here. Sexy Nichollette Sheridan is whacked out as the femme fa-tale Diane posing as Jake's (Cedric the Entertainer) wife. The only thing that could have saved the movie is if her lingerie mysteriously slipped off her stunning body. Really, too bad. Lucy Liu looks fabulous and looks killer in the marital arts action sequences. Her fight scene with Sheridan could have been a lot longer. Also, too bad.There is little redeeming in "Code Name: The Cleaner" other than its stars. For that blame the lameness of Director Les Mayfield and the horrendous writing of Robert Adetuyi and George Gallo. The tell tale symptom of this miserable collapse is that the most entertaining part of the movie are the outtakes at the end. Seems at least the cast and crew were having fun. One can only hope that there is more of Cedric, Sheridan, and Liu in the DVD release. Don't hold your breath.