Spy Kids 2: Die Rückkehr der Superspione

Sibling secret agents Carmen (Alexa PenaVega) and Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) rescue the President's bratty daughter Alexandra. Siblings Gary (Matt O'Leary) and Gerti Giggles (Emily Osment) are competing fellow OSS agents. Donnagon Giggles (Mike Judge) is promoted to director of OSS over Gregorio Cortez (Antonio Banderas). Juni is blamed for losing the Transmooker device and fired. The device is tracked to a mysterious island off of Madagascar. Gary and Gerti are assigned by their father to go to the island. Carmen and Juni arrive on the island on their own. They discover their gadgets don't work and the island is filled with weird creatures. Their parents Gregorio and Ingrid (Carla Gugino) set off to rescue their kids with Ingrid's parents (Ricardo Montalbán, Holland Taylor) as stowaways.

Robert Rodriguez continues his kiddie franchise with everybody returning for the sequel. I continue to like the arguing Cortez siblings. I also like the Giggles as their foil. Rodriguez stays with his wild CGI style. There are some Ray Harryhausen-like touches such as the creatures and the warrior skeletons. I think some Rodriguez fans judge this franchise too harshly for being kids movies. This franchise exists as its own thing and should be enjoyed as such.

Another winner in Robert Rodriguez' budding `Spy Kids' franchise, equally as good as the first and showing real potential for the future. Rodriguez is perhaps the only filmmaker of kids' movies that seems to actually listen to what kids want and in the process delivers something every family member can indulge in--it's as delicious as chocolate, with plenty of giggles aimed at the seven to ten crowd and dazzling ideas and humor that parents can appreciate. Rodriguez has an extremely fertile imagination and while his visuals sometimes can't keep up (the digital effects are an occasional letdown) the concepts themselves are so ambitious and delightful that it's easy to look past the brief technological shortcomings. As in the first film, there are plenty of references to family films of the past (most notably `Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory' and the stop-action animation of Ray Harryhausen) and the overall design of both films is very similar. (Rodriguez seems to prefer shooting at twilight, giving everything an orange hue.) But it does seem more expansive, perhaps because he's creative enough to incorporate welcome new characters, such as the kids' grandparents (played with relish by Ricardo Montalban and Holland Taylor) and another brother-sister spy team (Emily Osment and Disney Channel favorite Matthew O'Leary) as well as fresh retakes on characters from the first film (Steve Buscemi takes on the Alan Cumming role). Rodriguez' screenplay once again takes on the theme of family but this time it's carried poignantly throughout (it got dropped rather quickly in `Spy Kids') and the result, coupled with his extraordinary vision, is a film that will thoroughly satisfy just about everyone.

As the story begins, Juni and Carmen Cortez are agents on the rise in the new Spy Kids division of the OSS. Despite all their impressive skills and accomplishments, they're denied a promotion in the agency as a result of blatant nepotism. Still determined to make their mark, and much more importantly to upstage a pair of rival agents, they intervene in a mission to travel to a mysterious island and retrieve a sophisticated thingamajig that could be a potent threat if it falls into the wrong hands. Engaging sequel is far less cheesy than its predecessor, has a much better story, and lots of imaginative visual effects accompanied by exciting, cliffhanger action scenes. Overlong, and still corny at times, but has just enough of the right ingredients to entertain all audiences. ***

Carmen and Juni Cortez are official Spy Kids, working for an organization called OSS (which probably stands for something, but I'm not sure what). In the opening scenes we see the President's daughter, Alexandra (Taylor Momsen from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"), as a special guest at a futuristic amusement park. When Alexandra gets herself in trouble on a ride called the Juggler (which actually juggles the cars containing the passengers!), Carmen and Juni are dispatched to help her. But then a backup Spy Kids team of Gary (Matt O'Leary from "Frailty") and Gerti (Emily Osment, sister of Haley Joel) Giggles are sent in as well. The situation becomes competitive, with the Cortezes rescuing Alexandra while the Giggleses retrieve the dangerous device (the Transmooger) that she had stolen from her father's office.

As in the first film, Carmen and Juni's parents are Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) and Ingrid (Carla Gugino), who are also spies working for OSS. Gregorio is up for a major promotion, but like his children, he is also competing with the Giggles family. The dinner at which the winner of this promotion is announced is the launching pad for the heart of the film.

Other key characters returning from the first film are uncle "Machete" Cortez (Danny Trejo) and Felix Gumm (Cheech Marin). And then there is Doctor Romero (Steve Buscemi), who is a very interesting character.

The "film" was actually shot using high definition video, which looked good enough to never be a distraction. It had been transferred to film for exhibition, so the normal film wear and tear issues applied, especially since I saw it near the tail end of its theatrical run.

Besides using digital video, the director (Robert Rodriguez) also used another trick to save money: he did almost everything himself. He was the writer, cinematographer, editor, production designer, and visual effects supervisor, and also helped produce and score the film. Apparently he did much of this work in his garage in Austin, Texas.

The first film was very fun and unexpected. This one feels a *little* too much like more of the same, and it also adds a touch more gross humor than I think it needed to. It's still fun and definitely worth at least a rental, but it's not *quite* up to the level of the first film.

Seen on 10/9/2002.

On my estimation, this movie maintained what made the first one a good family movie: fun for kids while bearable (maybe even fun) for adults. The feature also shines in its presentation of family, and how to work things out.

If you have seen the trailers, and read the reviews you have an idea of what is in it, so I will not dwell on that. One thing I have not seen elsewhere and I recommend is that you stay on your seat when the film appears to be over, there are quite a few extra treats during and after the credits.