Code Name: The Cleaner 2007

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: There's some pretty good improvised shtick from DeRay Davis as a wacky janitor. But these are small pleasures in a movie that never really generates any serious laughs. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: It's comedian DeRay Davis and sassy actress Niecy Nash, who earn a few laughs in small supporting roles. Still, any resemblance to real entertainment is strictly coincidental. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: It's a bad sign for a comedy when viewers are left pining for more ineptly staged shoot-'em-up sequences. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It's Memento for dummies. But to this movie's credit, I couldn't follow it, either. Read more

Michael Ordona, Los Angeles Times: Code Name: The Cleaner offers no surprises but is good-natured and funny. Read more

Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly: Get Lucy Liu better roles! Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: The idea is that given the basic premise, the comedian will fill in the gaps with his own bits of business. Cedric is hardly up to the task. Though he's a scene stealer in other people's movies, he relies on tired reactions ("heeellll naw" is his mantra). Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: 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. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Director Les Mayfield can only do so much with the anemic, obvious script by Robert Adetuyi and George Gallo. And while his limited action sequences are very solid, this is a comedy, and within it he doesn't do much for his actors. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Nicollette Sheridan, playing a femme fatale, is all hard body and desperate cheekbones; you just want to give the poor woman a malted, and some acting lessons. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: How do films this stale and generic continue to get made, let alone with topflight talent? Cedric has been stealing scenes from bigger names for nearly a decade; he deserves better than a few amusingly-improvised minutes at the end of his own movie. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The story keeps stopping dead to deliver product placement for Jake's favorite brands of junk food. There must be a better way to work Skittles into the script than to have Jake keep saying things like, 'I love Skittles.' Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Cedric the Entertainer is never going to be Cedric the Leading Man. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: From past experience, viewers know that Cedric the Entertainer can be very funny. While there are times when Code Name: The Cleaner highlights his comedic abilities, there aren't enough of them. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: The good news is, Cedric can make even eating Skittles sort of funny -- and he easily saves this movie from being a wreck. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: Do anything: rob a petrol station, superglue your eyelids together, chew on broken glass, just avoid at all costs. Read more

Stephen Garrett, Time Out: Ponderous wisecracks and cloak-and-dagger high jinks pass for comic intrigue in this hapless mix of yuks and kicks. Read more

Brian Lowry, Variety: January is usually not the time to expect much high art among new releases, but this is an especially limp star vehicle. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Aside from Cedric's admittedly appealing persona -- he's always watchable, even in dreck like this -- there's absolutely nothing to recommend The Cleaner, not the putative comedy nor the action, which kicks in only at the end. Read more