Code Name: The Cleaner (2007)

User Rating:

3.9/10   

Director:

Les Mayfield

Writers (WGA):

Robert Adetuyi (written by) and
George Gallo (written by)

Release Date:

5 January 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime

Tagline:

In a dirty world, he's our only hope.

Plot:

Cedric the Entertainer plays Jake, a seemingly regular guy who has no idea who he is after being hit...

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Clogs | Spy | Thong | Parking Lot

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Cedric the Entertainer	...	Jake Rodgers
Lucy Liu	...	Gina
Nicollette Sheridan	...	Diane
Mark Dacascos	...	Eric Hauck
Callum Keith Rennie	...	Shaw
Niecy Nash	...	Jacuzzi
DeRay Davis	...	Ronnie
Will Patton	...	Riley
Kevin McNulty	...	Doctor Soames
BJ Davis	...	Old Timer (as Beau Davis)
Bart Anderson	...	Charlie
Tom Butler	...	Crane
Robert Clarke	...	The Butler
Rick Tae	...	Mini Bar Attendant
Kurt Max Runte	...	Dead FBI Agent

Also Known As:

The Cleaner (USA) (informal short title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, crude humor and some violence.

Runtime:

84 min | USA:91 min (Cannes Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #42643) | Portugal:M/12 | UK:PG | Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | Finland:K-15 | Ireland:12A | New Zealand:M | Australia:M | Netherlands:AL

Filming Locations:

Vancouver International Airport, Sea Island, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

Elizabeth Hurley was the original choice for Diane.

Goofs:

Continuity: In scenes involving the little red car throughout the film - internal shots have no rear view mirror while in external shots the mirror is back.

Quotes:

[from trailer]
Jake Rodgers: I'm the Black Rambo!
Gina: ...Blambo?

Movie Connections:

References First Blood (1982)

Soundtrack:

Prelude and Fugue No 13 in F Sharp Major

nonsensical relief from the heavy, fading awards season

Codename: The Cleaner reviewed by Sam Osborn

Welcome to January, generally known as the first of two months that consist mostly of studio duds poured discretely from the back of the release slate and into your multiplexes. Like a late August release, January and February releases generally spell 'trash,' with the best of them offering only a nonsensical relief from the heavy, fading awards season. Thus, we have Codename: The Cleaner.

It's the latest work from director Les Mayfield, a man whose earlier films (Flubber, American Outlaws, The Man) are best described as righteously mediocre. This January gem weighs in on a case of missing identity and FBI espionage with Cedric the Entertainer playing Jake Rodgers, waking up in a hotel bed with a dead FBI agent and a cut above his ear. His memory's been fried, leaving him without a name and only fragments of what looks to be a secrets ops combat mission batting around his brain. Diane—played by Nicollete Sheridan, whose beauty has been stretched and manipulated to the point of mimicking a mask from White Chicks—approaches Jake in the hotel lobby, filling him in on some important details pertaining to their supposed marriage and occupation of a bloated estate mansion. It all turns out to be farce, however, when Jake overhears Diane plotting to send Jake into cardiac arrest over a bit of information surrounding a computer chip. Soon Jake's on the run, doing his best play-pretend imitation of spy work, trying to hunt down the computer chip and unveil his own identity.

Like last year's You, Me, and Dupree, Codename: The Cleaner banks heavily on the likability of its lead, giving him the screen-time equivalent of carte blanche. But where Owen Wilson's sly, sandy-haired innocence can grow tiresome, Cedric's rotund antics are nothing if not charming. He leaps to great and often desperate lengths to mine a chuckle, but sometimes surprises us by shoveling out something truly hilarious. So it's a shame that the material surrounding him offers little more than static. Lucy Liu is superbly misused as Jake's girlfriend, rattling off forced punch-lines and rickety, unfitting "sistah" feistiness to match Ms. Sheridan's miscasting as the young, busty blonde (the joke here, I suppose, is that Ms Sheridan's peaked forty). The plot feels improvised; so weak that is seems to modify itself according to whatever improvisation Cedric throws at the script. It all comes together like a Jackie Chan Hong Kong action picture, only with Cedric the Entertainer doing the karate. It works, but only if you slouch in your seat and let your ears and eyes glaze over in a popcorn haze. It is January, after all.

Sam Osborn