Cedric the Entertainer (“Johnson Family Vacation”) stars in “Code Name: The Cleaner”, a mildly amusing spy comedy. This is a generic comedy that mainly sticks to immature humour and for a movie involving espionage, be prepared for a serious lack of gadgets.

Jake (Cedric the Entertainer) wakes up in a hotel room next to a dead guy and a briefcase full of money with no recollection of how he got there and who he is. He is soon being chased by the police and must try to piece together whether he is a spy or just a simple caretaker with the help of the beautiful Gina (Lucy Liu “Shanghai Noon”).

Cedric the Entertainer occasionally manage to make me chuckle but that does not make him particularly funny. His main gag is that he is an overweight black guy and he becomes rather tiresome as the movie progresses. Lucy Liu is charming as Gina. Nicollette Sheridan (“Beverly Hills Ninja”) plays Diane, who claims to be Jake’s wife; she has a scene where she tries to arouse Jake in order to help him remember where he placed a computer chip. She prances around in her underwear in what is probably the best scene of the movie. The other characters are really irritating.

“Code Name: The Cleaner” has a few moments here and there that are not too bad but most of the film just falls flat. Cedric the Entertainer is not endearing at all and that means that we do not care whether he is a spy or not. I’m sure most of the filmmakers’ effort went on getting Nicollette Sheridan’s underwear scene right and then rushed the rest of it. There are better spy comedies out there including better spy comedies with Nicollette Sheridan (“Spy Hard” is really funny) so I do not recommend “Code Name: The Cleaner”.