Code Name: The Cleaner Reviews
So the bad reviews are rolling in. Spoilers in the reviews.
The Cleaner Is a Mess
'Code Name: The Cleaner' is a mess
BY CHRISTY LEMIRE
AP Movie Critic
This story ran on nwitimes.com on Friday, January 5, 2007 12:11 AM CST
Jimmy Kimmel once joked that Cedric the Entertainer chose that name for himself because it paid better than going by "Cedric the Janitor."
Now Cedric is stuck playing a janitor in "Code Name: The Cleaner," the kind of ridiculously silly movie that only comes out during the notorious dumping ground of the first week of January (if you'll pardon the trash pun).
The comedian stars as custodian Jake Rodgers, who believes he's a super spy when he wakes up in a hotel room next to a dead FBI agent and a suitcase full of cash, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. (Director Les Mayfield says the intention was to create a comic take on "The Bourne Identity." Somewhere, Robert Ludlum is spinning in his grave.)
Lucy Liu gets to show off her "Charlie's Angels" fighting skills as Cedric's waitress girlfriend, Gina, and Nicolette Sheridan gets to show off her "Desperate Housewives" bod as Diane, the seductress who may or may not be his wife.
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.
Jake bumbles his way from one situation to the next with Gina, looking for a secret computer chip from the video game company where he works, which he may have hidden someplace before he got bonked on the head. Various generic baddies are on their tail looking for the chip, too, including a corrupt FBI agent (Callum Keith Rennie) and the video game company's slick CEO (Mark Dacascos).
But he gets to have some fun, too -- at least it's presented as fun, even though it's not funny -- practicing his horrendous golf swing and ordering random stuff from the butler at the mansion he thinks is his. He also dresses up and performs as part of a clog-dancing group to sneak back into the hotel where the killing happened, which is vaguely amusing because he just looks so goofy and out of place.
In theory we're supposed to be piecing together the mystery of who Jake is and what happened to him. But it's hard to invest that kind of energy in this character, and this film, because it's so painfully shallow. (Mayfield previously directed "Encino Man," "Flubber" and "The Man," and the script comes from Robert Adetuyi and George Gallo.)
Whether Cedric's character is truly a highly trained special ops stud or just a regular guy who's played too many video games, the memory of this movie will have left your brain before you walk out of the theater. If you're lucky.
onscreen
"Code Name" The Cleaner"
Grade: C
Starring: Cedric the Entertainer, Elizabeth Hurley, Lucy Liu, Nicolette Sheridan, DeRay Davis, Callum Keith Rennie
Director: Les Mayfield
Rated: PG-13 for sexual content, crude humor and some language
Code Name appropriately forgettable
Code Name Appropriately forgettable
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) -
Lucy Liu and Cedric the Entertainer co-star in this comedy which asks: Is its hero a superspy with dazzling skills or a janitor, to which most of the evidence points?
"Code Name: The Cleaner" borrows the gimmick of the successful thriller "The Bourne Identity" of an amnesia victim gradually realizing he might be an undercover agent and tailors this for the so-dumb-it's-almost-smart clowning of comic Cedric the Entertainer. A much better title would be "Bourne Yesterday." The clunky title New Line has burdened the comedy with can't help at the box office, but Cedric the Entertainer fans won't mind. The film isn't exactly an outreach program for nonfans, but the suspense/thriller element should attract enough for a modestly successful payoff.
The movie, written by Robert Adetuyi and George Gallo and directed by Les Mayfield, hangs on a single quandary: Is its hero a superspy with dazzling skills or a janitor, to which most of the evidence points? The guy himself -- this would be Cedric -- is clueless when he wakes up in a high-rise hotel room with a nasty bump on the head, a dead
FBI agent beside him in bed, a briefcase containing $250,000 in cash and no memory of anything, including his own identity. He is just smart enough to take the briefcase but leave the dead agent.
As police descend on the hotel, a statuesque blonde (Nicollette Sheridan) accosts him in the lobby and insists she is his wife. She drives him to "his" palatial mansion with its sports cars, butler and lingerie she insists on modeling for him, but somehow none of this fits his still-elusive identity. He escapes moments before she tries to drug him.
The guy then walks into a diner where an alluring waitress (Lucy Liu) claims to be his girlfriend. Whoever this guy is, he's doing OK in the woman department. Just as he is coming to believe from clues that he must be an undercover agent with the code name "The Cleaner," the waitress bursts his bubble by informing him that he works as a janitor for a video game manufacturer.
But what to make of his flashbacks to a war zone where he leads a company of Special Forces into combat and everyone calls him "Colonel?" Or the repressed memory of a payoff gone wrong? Or the fact that everyone in town wants him dead? No, the guy insists, he must be an agent with the clever cover of a janitor.
This implausible plot full of holes does pave the way for a series of Cedric the Entertainer skits and physical gags, like his posing as a member of a Dutch dance troupe, wooden shoes and all, to gain re-entry to the scene of the crime. None of these is very funny. A few are painfully unfunny. In either case, the movie comes to a standstill. It's a pity no one thought to screen old Bob Hope movies to see how to integrate comedy into genre filmmaking.
The filmmakers surround Cedric the Entertainer with a host of straight men, including martial artist/actor
Mark Dacascos as the polished villain, Will Patton as a buddy who tells him to trust no one, Callum Keith Rennie as a crooked FBI agent and comedian DeRay Davis as a janitor-cum-rapper to act as a counterbalance to the star's humor. Liu and Sheridan give the film glamour, but their catfight falls flat. Niecy Nash has the movie's funniest line, which comes during outtakes shown at the end credits. The behind-the-camera effort in Vancouver is surprisingly good.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
The Cleaner Is a Mess
'Code Name: The Cleaner' is a mess
BY CHRISTY LEMIRE
AP Movie Critic
This story ran on nwitimes.com on Friday, January 5, 2007 12:11 AM CST
Jimmy Kimmel once joked that Cedric the Entertainer chose that name for himself because it paid better than going by "Cedric the Janitor."
Now Cedric is stuck playing a janitor in "Code Name: The Cleaner," the kind of ridiculously silly movie that only comes out during the notorious dumping ground of the first week of January (if you'll pardon the trash pun).
The comedian stars as custodian Jake Rodgers, who believes he's a super spy when he wakes up in a hotel room next to a dead FBI agent and a suitcase full of cash, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. (Director Les Mayfield says the intention was to create a comic take on "The Bourne Identity." Somewhere, Robert Ludlum is spinning in his grave.)
Lucy Liu gets to show off her "Charlie's Angels" fighting skills as Cedric's waitress girlfriend, Gina, and Nicolette Sheridan gets to show off her "Desperate Housewives" bod as Diane, the seductress who may or may not be his wife.
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.
Jake bumbles his way from one situation to the next with Gina, looking for a secret computer chip from the video game company where he works, which he may have hidden someplace before he got bonked on the head. Various generic baddies are on their tail looking for the chip, too, including a corrupt FBI agent (Callum Keith Rennie) and the video game company's slick CEO (Mark Dacascos).
But he gets to have some fun, too -- at least it's presented as fun, even though it's not funny -- practicing his horrendous golf swing and ordering random stuff from the butler at the mansion he thinks is his. He also dresses up and performs as part of a clog-dancing group to sneak back into the hotel where the killing happened, which is vaguely amusing because he just looks so goofy and out of place.
In theory we're supposed to be piecing together the mystery of who Jake is and what happened to him. But it's hard to invest that kind of energy in this character, and this film, because it's so painfully shallow. (Mayfield previously directed "Encino Man," "Flubber" and "The Man," and the script comes from Robert Adetuyi and George Gallo.)
Whether Cedric's character is truly a highly trained special ops stud or just a regular guy who's played too many video games, the memory of this movie will have left your brain before you walk out of the theater. If you're lucky.
onscreen
"Code Name" The Cleaner"
Grade: C
Starring: Cedric the Entertainer, Elizabeth Hurley, Lucy Liu, Nicolette Sheridan, DeRay Davis, Callum Keith Rennie
Director: Les Mayfield
Rated: PG-13 for sexual content, crude humor and some language
Code Name appropriately forgettable
Code Name Appropriately forgettable
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) -
Lucy Liu and Cedric the Entertainer co-star in this comedy which asks: Is its hero a superspy with dazzling skills or a janitor, to which most of the evidence points?
"Code Name: The Cleaner" borrows the gimmick of the successful thriller "The Bourne Identity" of an amnesia victim gradually realizing he might be an undercover agent and tailors this for the so-dumb-it's-almost-smart clowning of comic Cedric the Entertainer. A much better title would be "Bourne Yesterday." The clunky title New Line has burdened the comedy with can't help at the box office, but Cedric the Entertainer fans won't mind. The film isn't exactly an outreach program for nonfans, but the suspense/thriller element should attract enough for a modestly successful payoff.
The movie, written by Robert Adetuyi and George Gallo and directed by Les Mayfield, hangs on a single quandary: Is its hero a superspy with dazzling skills or a janitor, to which most of the evidence points? The guy himself -- this would be Cedric -- is clueless when he wakes up in a high-rise hotel room with a nasty bump on the head, a dead
FBI agent beside him in bed, a briefcase containing $250,000 in cash and no memory of anything, including his own identity. He is just smart enough to take the briefcase but leave the dead agent.
As police descend on the hotel, a statuesque blonde (Nicollette Sheridan) accosts him in the lobby and insists she is his wife. She drives him to "his" palatial mansion with its sports cars, butler and lingerie she insists on modeling for him, but somehow none of this fits his still-elusive identity. He escapes moments before she tries to drug him.
The guy then walks into a diner where an alluring waitress (Lucy Liu) claims to be his girlfriend. Whoever this guy is, he's doing OK in the woman department. Just as he is coming to believe from clues that he must be an undercover agent with the code name "The Cleaner," the waitress bursts his bubble by informing him that he works as a janitor for a video game manufacturer.
But what to make of his flashbacks to a war zone where he leads a company of Special Forces into combat and everyone calls him "Colonel?" Or the repressed memory of a payoff gone wrong? Or the fact that everyone in town wants him dead? No, the guy insists, he must be an agent with the clever cover of a janitor.
This implausible plot full of holes does pave the way for a series of Cedric the Entertainer skits and physical gags, like his posing as a member of a Dutch dance troupe, wooden shoes and all, to gain re-entry to the scene of the crime. None of these is very funny. A few are painfully unfunny. In either case, the movie comes to a standstill. It's a pity no one thought to screen old Bob Hope movies to see how to integrate comedy into genre filmmaking.
The filmmakers surround Cedric the Entertainer with a host of straight men, including martial artist/actor
Mark Dacascos as the polished villain, Will Patton as a buddy who tells him to trust no one, Callum Keith Rennie as a crooked FBI agent and comedian DeRay Davis as a janitor-cum-rapper to act as a counterbalance to the star's humor. Liu and Sheridan give the film glamour, but their catfight falls flat. Niecy Nash has the movie's funniest line, which comes during outtakes shown at the end credits. The behind-the-camera effort in Vancouver is surprisingly good.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter