After his manic turns in the “Barbershop” movies, the comedian known as Cedric the Entertainer seemed poised to become a big movie star.
Well, he’s still a large man, and a movie star of sorts. But “Johnson Family Vacation” and “The Honeymooners” could only be a career plan to some demented Hollywood executive.
Now Cedric’s bad streak continues with “Code Name: The Cleaner,” a cheap, unfunny spy caper. A couple more like this, and “Barbershop 3” starts to look pretty good.
The film opens in Seattle, although after an establishing shot of the Space Needle, the actual shooting of the movie quickly switches to Seattle’s stunt double, Vancouver, B.C. Cedric plays a man who wakes up in a Vancouver – er, Seattle – hotel room. He has amnesia, a briefcase full of cash, and a dead man next to him.
A woman (Nicollette Sheridan) accosts him, claiming to be his wife. She takes him to a palatial estate that supposedly belongs to him, but it doesn’t ring true.
As the plot grinds on, Cedric becomes convinced that he is a spy mixed up in some kind of CIA operation. On the other hand, some janitors at a high-tech firm insist he was part of the custodial crew. But this could have been an undercover job. Right?
While trying to regain his memory, Cedric also discovers a girlfriend (Lucy Liu, looking bored) who isn’t pleased about the wife, if she is the wife.
None of this matters, believe me. What matters is the sloppy writing and the ham-handed direction by Les Mayfield (who did the abysmal remake of “Flubber”). This is an attention-deficit movie – there’s a cut every five seconds – so no comic rhythm ever gets to build.
The main bad guy is played by Mark Cacascos, so cool in “The Brotherhood of Wolves,” who looks disconcertingly like Paul Anka here. The only spots of laughter come from comedian DeRay Davis, who works up a few broad moments with some improvised rapping. Cedric the Entertainer, on the other hand, is stuck playing the straight man, and he looks desperate.
As well he should. We just got through sorting the worst movies of 2006, and already this one is a contender for the 2007 list.
Lucy Liu and Cedric the Entertainer in “Code Name: The Cleaner.”
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