Code Name: The Cleaner

Los Angeles Times Michael Ordona

Offers no surprises but is good-natured and funny. It's mercifully devoid of car chases, although it does have a truly inane gunfight -- did any of these trained killers ever hear of target practice? -- and some out-of-left-field martial arts.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

The movie finally comes to life when Liu turns up.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Although the finished product isn't great, it's more akin to a bad Steve Martin movie from the 1980s than bad Pauly Shore from the 1990s. We mean that as a compliment (sort of).

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Gets entertaining when Liu kicks in.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The problem is, while the thriller aspects of the movie are serviceable, they aren't good enough to form the basis of anything more serious than a sit-com, and by spending as much time on them as Code Name: The Cleaner does, it makes the film at times seem drawn-out and tedious.

The New York Times Neil Genzlinger

Cedric the Entertainer's artless performance deadens what could have been a much funnier comedy.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The humor is too adult for children and the plot far too childish for most adults; in fact, everything about the film is really too silly to warrant much consideration.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Aside from Cedric's admittedly appealing persona -- he's always watchable, even in dreck like this -- there's absolutely nothing to recommend The Cleaner.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

This implausible plot full of holes does pave the way for a series of Cedric the Entertainer skits and physical gags. 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.

Variety Brian Lowry

This is an especially limp star vehicle that delivers a few widely spaced moments of frivolity before what should be a quick mop-up trip to the DVD aisles.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Never really generates any serious laughs.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Isn't as bad as you'd think, but this comic mash-up of "The Bourne Identity" and "Fat Albert" doesn't have much heft.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

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. And so do we.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It's another standard-issue bad star-vehicle action-comedy, this time for Cedric.

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling

Get Lucy Liu better roles!

LA Weekly Luke Y. Thompson

Cedric gets some help from a butt-kicking babe (Lucy Liu) who may or may not be his girlfriend, and if you believe this pairing could plausibly happen, you might be gullible enough to buy a ticket to this movie.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

I humbly submit that Cedric the Entertainer be required to give up the "Entertainer" portion of his nom de plume until he actually starts entertaining us.

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

The most poignant point in the whole painful endeavor is when the credits roll. It's here that we see the outtakes and watch Cedric riffing as he improvs variations on his dialogue. These outtakes are genuinely funny, standing as reminders that the last 90 minutes were a sad waste of talent.