The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
 
Features  |  Reviews
Best2012Vote-1000x50

Code Name: The Cleaner

Still dirty
By TOM MEEK  |  January 10, 2007

Cedric the Entertainer has it tough. An amnesia victim caught up in corporate espionage and FBI double-dealings, he must put up with having Desperate Housewife Nicollette Sheridan crawl all over him in a thong. Later, he’s holed up with Lucy Liu. The Entertainer’s memory-challenged Jake, it seems, may or may not be an undercover operative; Sheridan’s femme fatale Diane might be posing as Jake’s wife, and Liu’s jealous girlfriend Gina has a few secrets of her own. The two actresses are framed fetchingly, but it’s Sheridan who gets the juicier role; the usually saucy Liu is inert and underutilized in sidekick mode. Neither does director Les Mayfield (Encino Man) help with his dearth of comic synergy. The Entertainer conjures up some charm, and DeRay Davis provides pyrotechnics as a janitor/wanna-be rapper, but like the teddy-clad bubble-bath square-off between Liu and Sheridan, it’s just not enough or — depending on your sensibilities — too much.

On the Web
Code Name: The Cleaner's Web site: http://www.thecleanermovie.com/

Related: 3 Needles, Lucky Number Slevin, Release of Buddy to precede the real thing, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cedric the Entertainer, Nicollette Sheridan,  More more >
| More

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 02/13 ]   "Aphrodite and the Gods of Love"  @ Museum of Fine Arts
[ 02/13 ]   "Processes and Dreams"  @ Panopticon Gallery
[ 02/13 ]   "Artists' Books: Books by Artists"  @ Boston Athenæum
More Information
ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING  |  January 24, 2012
    The Underworld series got long in the tooth early, but here, in the fourth installment (directed by Swede Måns Mårlind), it grows new fangs.
  •   REVIEW: JOYFUL NOISE  |  January 10, 2012
    There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.
  •   REVIEW: IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY  |  January 05, 2012
    Jolie has loosely reworked the story of Romeo and Juliet in an infamous setting familiar from CNN but here seen from the inside.
  •   REVIEW: ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED  |  December 13, 2011
    For 50 years, Alvin and the Chipmunks have been driving parents nuts with their helium-infused banter and shrill bastardizations of pop music.
  •   REVIEW: TRESPASS  |  October 13, 2011
    If Rod Lurie's errant remake of Straw Dogs didn't tickle your morbid fear of home invasion, then perhaps the latest from Joel Schumacher ( Falling Down ) might do the job.

 See all articles by: TOM MEEK

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed