Lucy Liu - Code Name The Cleaner

God only knows what attracted Lucy to this role, unless it was a calculated effort to increase her bankability in the urban demographic. Admittedly, her role as a secret agent is not such a big stretch, and channeling her Charlie's Angels character once again was probably an easy paycheck. It's a mindless and insipid film, and the only thing it has going for it in my one-eyed opinion is the fact that it features Ms Liu.

Starring Cedric the Entertainer, there wasn't much entertaining going on unless you find the tired cliche of african-american jive talk amusing. And even if you find it amusing when delivered by an an african-american - would you say the same when delivered by an asian? Yes that's right, Lucy actually speaks and adopts the gestures of an african-american, and if this was meant to be funny then I must have missed the humor. To be fair to Lucy, lines such as "That's where you do your business, fool" and "Trust me you ain't hittin' nothin yet. You would've remembered hittin' mama." can't be pulled off by anyone. Ever.

On the upside, Lucy sports a sexy waitress costume in her first scene along with the obligatory slow-mo sequence - and looks memorably hot while doing so. And later in the film gets to kick some bad-guy ass, running around with a gun and using her martial arts skills. As always Lucy looks great in either role, being one of the few Hollywood actresses who can do 'sexy' and 'deadly' equally effectively.

I suspect most film-lovers (as opposed to film-goers) will find this a pretty hard film to sit through. I know I did, but then I'm certainly not in this film's target audience. Still, Lucy deserves much better roles than this bilge.










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