Cody Banks : Agent secret

"Agent Cody Banks" sticks Banks (Muniz), a 16 year old high school student and CIA junior agent, in the middle of a 007 plot clone with a nemesis who's out to extort nanobot technology from a good-guy scientist to control the world. Banks' mission is to get close to the scientist's hottie daughter (Duff) so he can...um, save the world. This kid flick has the same kind of high tech stuff, great sets, and production value we come to expect with 007 or MI flicks including martial arts, X-boarding, etc. all built around a teen puppy love story centerpiece. A fun action guy flick for kids which gets moving quick and never slows down. (B)

Taking advantage of a couple of hot teen television properties at the time, MGM fashioned this fantasy for kids about a typical teenage boy with one big secret. Agent Cody Banks is a CIA operative, part of a special program that trains kids for special missions. And in the title role Frankie Muniz gets to do them, providing he's not grounded.

The other hot property at the time was Hilary Duff who was in Disney's Lizzie McGuire series while Muniz was doing Malcolm In The Middle. She's Frankie's assignment, Duff is the daughter of a scientist who's gone missing and Frankie has to both protect her and find out what's going on.

It's something big all right, scientist Martin Donovan has invented some kind of artificial life that will eat anything carbon or silicon based. That could wreak a lot of havoc in the wrong hands.

Donovan is Duff's father, as for Muniz's parents they are unbelievably clueless, but that's part of the charm of these films. One who's not clueless is Muniz's immediate superior and handler Angie Harmon. She's got a great scene in the prep school where Muniz has been put to be close to Duff with some of the adolescent males there.

Agent Cody Banks with the star power of two current teen idols made a lot of money, so much so a sequel was made. Now if they had really wanted to do something different, they'd have made Duff the secret agent with Muniz her assignment.

Blatant rip-off of Bond movies for the teen set. It's been done so many times that it doesn't seem to matter anymore.

I really liked it, but then I was going into it knowing what it was and just had fun. I didn't detect any pretension that the film-makers thought it was anything more than it was: a thoroughly enjoyable piece of fluff with a couple of very attractive stars. I was surprised on one or two occasions when Muniz appeared to be doing some stunts that didn't involve wire work to see that this boy has action man potential.

This is the kind of movie that will have the young set whooping with delight. That hottie Angie Harmon also provides interest for older male viewers.

Normally I dislike (and somewhat resent) unoriginal movies that are simply an exercise in age regression of an established franchise to target a younger consumer audience (Young Indiana Jones, Young Sherlock Holmes, Muppet Babies, et al) . This practice ruined Saturday morning for me even moreso than mandatory comic-relief characters (Scrappy Doo anyone?). To be honest I went in expecting VERY little from Agent Cody Banks which was obviously a spy genre movie targeted at consumers too old for Spy Kids and too young to get into Bond films.

The story concerns a stand-out from an experimental new government recruiting facility that takes high school kids to a 'summer camp' which is actually a high-tech training operation for young CIA operatives. Cody Banks is one of the 'graduates' of this program who is currently simply getting by in his regular routine until his country calls him up to active duty.

It seems a nerdy scientist has developed nanobots capable of eating their way through just about anything at the atomic level (originally designed to clean up oil spills in offshore disasters). Needless to say, the funding for the project is supplied by a shadowy character with plans for world domination and, of course, he has a menacing henchman (Francois - rather ironic considering the US relations with France at the moment) who does the physical dirty work on the mastermind's behalf. When the villains seek to kidnap the daughter (Duff) of the nerdy scientist to gain control over the nanobots, Cody Banks (Muniz) is called into active service and given an array of spy gear that would make Bond envious. The side 'gimmick' is that Cody is shy and cannot talk to girls which makes him 'endearing' juxtaposed to Bond's womanizing talents. In all other respects Cody is a 5' tall 15 year old James Bond.

Sounds like a Bond film? It is. Only better than the last three Bond outings (believe it or not). I am actually fairly certain the sets and props used at the end of the film are recycled from early Bond films (most notably the sub bay and mag-lev train from Moonraker and/or Man With the Golden Gun- I cannot remember which film for sure, but you'll recognize it when you see it). The plot, while COMPLETELY unoriginal, is consistent and engaging enough to hold the attention (especially if you are too young to have seen the Bond/spy movies it borrows from). The gadgets are fairly interesting and, again, while derivative of earlier franchises, are fun to see in the hands of a teenager.

The acting is fairly credible (such as it is) with a few exaggerated (and over-acted) spy film stereotypes. There's no profanity, no nudity, no drugs (though what COULD be alcohol if you wanted to see it as such), plenty of action and the requisite action-film violence (and one fairly gruesome death at the end).

This movie is targeted squarely at the 'puberty set' but is still enjoyable by all ages. My 5 year old son really enjoyed it and nothing in the film was more objectionable than what he watches on broadcast TV (perhaps less so to be honest).

I recommend this film to anyone that likes spy films and anyone looking for a 'safe' film the entire family can enjoy.

Kiddie spy flicks have become something of a new trend, resulting in the first spin-off since Spy Kids other than the original franchise. To say the least, this film falls way short of that expectation. Yes, the film had cool gadgets, and some decent sequences, it just seemed to lack where Spy Kids excelled. There wasn't that innocent charm or the silliness, for it seemed to be replaced by sexual innuendos and teenage hormones. Unfortunately, this series will most likely get more sequels, which means they have at least another chance to make up for their mistakes.