Code Name: Cleaner

 


 

In the theater where I watched this Movie they showed a trailer for a new Movie starring Eddie Murphy (Warning – avoid it like the plague, unless you are a rabid fan). Why is this noteworthy? Because Cedric the Entertainer (Cedric Kyles, "Intolerable Cruelty", "Lemony Snicket", "Big Mama") is a black comedian, less known, chubbier and less rude than Eddie Murphy, but very much like him in style (a combination of verbal, physical and slapstick humor). In this action comedy he stars as Jake Rogers, an ordinary person, who wakes up in a hotel room next to a body of an FBI agent and a suitcase full of money, and he has no idea what happened and how he got there - not really an original idea in itself. As he escapes from the hotel - with the suitcase of money, of course - he also encounters a white woman (heaven forbid) who claims to be his wife (Nicolette Sheridan, well preserved, or at least her body is), a cute Asian waitress (Lucy Liu, "Charlie's Angels") claiming to be his girlfriend, and a black parking lot attendant, claiming that she alone is his one and only...

Is Jake just a cleaner as in janitor, or a cleaner a la Jean Reno in Leon? Who is the woman claiming to be Jake's wife and what is her connection to dead FBI agent? (This is, incidentally, one of the biggest holes in the script – the answer to this question arrives way too quickly). And is the waitress not a waitress at all and not his girlfriend? And most important, why are Jake and the waitress hunted down by the computer games corporation? This is what Jake desperately wants to know, and the answers become clear from chase to chase and from escape to escape, until the final confrontation. Pay attention and beware - basic items found in any office service cabinet can easily become lethal weapons!

All in all, a lightweight comedy, which someone apparently decided that Purim week is an appropriate time to screen. All in all it manages to maintain a certain level of suspense and most of the time it also keeps above the belt (see opening note).

By the way, what is Mark Dakaskos, a well known martial arts films star, doing playing a corrupt corporate executive? And what is Will Patton, usually a serious and well appreciated actor, doing with such a hideous mustache?

Those who like "blooper" clips commonly shown at the end of this kind of Movies should wait patiently...

Director: Les Mayfield