Code Name: The Cleaner (2007)

I liked it because I was expecting it to be dumb and silly.  I guess a lot of people thought it was going to be serious?

It’s a spy movie playing on the Bourne Identity if Jason was a decently funny guy named Cedric and turned out to not be a spy at all.  And if people still didn’t know the difference between the FBI and the CIA in 2007 which is entirely possible with a young adult and adult child target audience.  Could be that the main characters were all in their 40’s which may have turned off people half that age or younger.  I’m sorry, I know Nicollette Sheridan technically has a nice body but her face and personality made her “sexy” dance kind of nasty.  Lucy Liu is probably a really nice person but she’s sort of a scrawny “badass” with a penchant for being in great and bad movies equally often.  You can say anything you like about Cedric but he made a nice everyman spy and while he may not have ended up being a “secret agent”, it’s nice that his life improved after his adventures and we can be happy with how things ended up for him.  That’s more than you can say about a lot of “spy” movies.

It’s not a classic or must-see spy movie but I wouldn’t say it’s bottom of the barrel despite what critics say.  They’re judging it across a larger cross-section of movies while I’m simply assessing it within the genre.

Lower your standards, go in with no expectations and have some fun.

–Kryptosfan