Review of Code Name: The Cleaner (2007) by Danielle S — 19 Jul 2008

Cedric the Entertainer stars as Jake, who has amnesia and is either a janitor who thinks he's a secret agent or a secret agent who thinks he's a janitor. Or maybe a monk who dreams he's a butterfly.

Lucy Liu is Gina, who may just be the hash-hauling waitress she seems to be, or she could be an FBI agent. Nicollette Sheridan (Desperate Housewives) is Diane, who may be Jake's wife if he turns out to be a rich software guru instead of a spy or a janitor.

Cedric the Entertainer (The Honeymooners) needs a new agent, or he's seriously in danger of losing that last part of his name. Code Name: The Cleaner is an unforgivably bland comedy crafted out of elements from The Bourne Identity and a 1990 movie where Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez are garbage men called Men at Work.

It's hardly entertaining, and far too concerned with being likable to ever do anything inventive. Director Les Mayfield (Flubber) fails with both the thriller and comedy bits that provide wooden and predictable moments that are telegraphed miles away.

There's not enough humor, and the serious moments are contrived. Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels) and Nicolette Sheridan (Desperate Housewives) in underwear. Both ladies look incredible, and they get a climactic martial arts cat fight inter cut with a bubble bath fantasy where they get dangerously close to making out.

Makes no sense to me either, but at least it was eye candy and nowhere near as boring as the rest of the flick.