With perhaps any other contemporary actor in the lead role -- Jake Rodgers, aka, The Cleaner (Cedric the Entertainer) -- this film would have been a total bust. As some of the other folks commenting on here have already mentioned, the storyline is both contrived and in many ways superconventionally executed -- so much so that it risks becoming one long cliché. If you're looking for stimulating American cinema, or even a good action movie or espionage thriller, you should see something else.
What saves CODE NAME: THE CLEANER for me, I think, is the utter preposterousness of casting Cedric the Entertainer as an amnesiac slowly convincing himself (and, supposedly, the viewer) that he is actually a secret agent working for the American government. I love Lucy Liu, but this is not her (best) film -- she plays more or less the same character she has played elsewhere (including the borderline racist trope that, since she is of Asian descent, she must be a masterful practitioner of at least one martial art) -- although her performance is true, and is enhanced comically by her playing opposite Cedric. None of the rest of the characters or actors -- including Nicollette Sheridan -- does much for the film, and the writing and direction are mediocre at best. But Cedric the Entertainer trying to convince us he's a superspy? That's worth the rental.
What saves CODE NAME: THE CLEANER for me, I think, is the utter preposterousness of casting Cedric the Entertainer as an amnesiac slowly convincing himself (and, supposedly, the viewer) that he is actually a secret agent working for the American government. I love Lucy Liu, but this is not her (best) film -- she plays more or less the same character she has played elsewhere (including the borderline racist trope that, since she is of Asian descent, she must be a masterful practitioner of at least one martial art) -- although her performance is true, and is enhanced comically by her playing opposite Cedric. None of the rest of the characters or actors -- including Nicollette Sheridan -- does much for the film, and the writing and direction are mediocre at best. But Cedric the Entertainer trying to convince us he's a superspy? That's worth the rental.