Spy Kids

I took my two boys (7 and 10) to see Spy kids today. They were transfixed and wanted to watch it again straightaway. Both are big James Bond fans but some of the content and dialogue of the Bond movies isn't suitable. Spy Kids fits the bill exactly for anyone under 13 who likes the Bond films. It came over to me as a blend of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets Home Alone meets Bond. It was at the kids level without patronizing them and was believable enough for adults to enjoy too. All of the acting was high quality and the special effects first class.

I shall enjoy it again in the future on video but it deserves to be seen on the big screen first. Another bonus were the trailers for Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. I often come away from Cinema trips with the kids feeling that we haven't really had our moneys worth, but not today!

Yeah I get the CGI is pretty dated and it's very silly, but look at the movie as it is. People on imdb have a bad habit of giving movies they think are overrated 1s, or movies they think are underrated 10s. This movie is an example of the former.

The kid actors are good, as well as the adults. Danny Trejo is a standout for me. Antonio banderas was great as well.

The villain, Floop, may be silly but you understand his character, which is something MANY spy movies fail at.

Jokes do fall flat, but some do land and are pretty good. The plot is simple and silly and does makes no sense at times, but it's a kid movie: I don't know why some reviewers were expecting an in-depth socio-political commentary on the government and spies. And in my opinion, the plot is entertaining and that's what matters.

I suppose that what movies should be aiming for: entertainment. Obviously a good movie needs good plot; score; direction; writing; cinematography and acting (all of which this movie has), but what makes me actually care about the movie is the question of 'if I enjoyed the movie'

And I enjoyed the movie, a lot

"Spy Kids" is one heck of a movie. Never have I seen a kiddie flick come along which is so clean, and yet still so entertaining at the same time. This odd blend of one of the best (The Matrix) and worst (Baby Geniuses) movies of 1999 is surprisingly exciting for something so "PG", and director and writer Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn) manages to create loads of fun while still keeping the violence level down.

He manages to do all this by being incredibly inventive with his special effects. "Spy Kid's" is a visual fun house of ideas which are all so playfully intuned with kids and their level of interest. He comes up with things such as movable thumb people and floors that fall apart like puzzle pieces. Rodriguez also has a lot of fun with this topic, putting in loads of high tech equipment and transportation, which offer kids and adults an incredible ride which is most always played for humor and thrills.

The basic set up for "Spy Kids" is this. Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) and Ingrid (Carla Gugino) were both spies working for different agencies, when a "hit" put out on each other brings them closer together. They decide to put away the spy work and live normal lives as husband and wife, and soon father and mother.

But the perfect family they dream about is far from. Their kids are keeping secrets from them, a trait from their former job that they feel they have passed on to their children. Their daughter Carmen (Alexa Vega) is skipping school, while Juni (Daryl Sabara) is being bullied at school and instead of telling his parents, just makes up a couple of imaginary friends.

They see how their past lives have affected their children, but before they can correct their wrong, their past catches up with them. They are thrown back into the spy game to investigate the capture of several other spies, but only end up being captured themselves.

The culprit also just happens to be Juni's favorite televison star, Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming). Floop is after a brain prototype that Gregorio created years ago. If he can implant that into the heads of his robot and mutant henchmen, nothing can stop him from taking over the world and becoming the number one rated show on TV. But his other human henchmen Minion (played dastardly well by Tony Shalhoub) has other plans. Back home, the feuding siblings must learn to work together in order to save their parents and the world as they are tossed into the spy game as well.

It seems as if the best kids movies always have a family-like theme to them, and "Spy Kids" is no exception. Much of this movie is exciting, but then there are those other parts, which are to cuteness what Charlie's Angels was to sexy clad women. Some may accuse Rodriguez of turning corny on us all of a sudden, but luckily he is also working with some very funny material here, as well as with newcomer Daryl Sabara.

His partner Alexa Vega also comes off very strong in her role as his sister. Together they are a very good crime fighting team, and I look forward to seeing them in upcoming sequels. Alan Cumming is also very good, turning in an absent minded Willy Wonka style performance that also fits in very well with Rodriguez's style for this movie, which seems to be based largely around an amusement park surrounding a James Bond movie.

His film may be corny for older kids, but this is for the young ones and chances are you will never find a movie as decent and fun for them as this one is for a long time. Out of four stars, Spy Kids definitely scores a three.

Robert Rodriguez is not the first person you'd suggest to make a children's film. As entertaining as 'Desperado', 'The Faculty' and 'From Dusk Till dawn' are, you wouldn't line them up alongside 'Toy Story 2' and 'The Jungle Book' for good, old-fashioned family entertainment. Yet, as this energetic, light-hearted Bondesque spoof proves, Rodriguez has the talent to turn his hand to just about anything, and inject it with the suspense and adrenalin that are his trademark.

From the gloriously OTT opening scene (which tells the story of how two agents sent to kill each other fall in love and settle down) to the last second, 'Spy Kids' doesn't miss a trick. The obligatory gizmos, mad villains and dastardly plot to take over the world are all there, along with a star cast all playing their roles with tongues firmly in cheek. The action/humour mix is extremely well-balanced too, with some hilarious visual gags sitting within a sharp script and Banderas, in particular, revels taking a sly swipe at his normal 'strong yet silent Latino' image. Yet, refreshingly for a children's film, it's never patronising, never obvious, and genuinely original in places (soldiers made of thumbs, secret agents transformed into tellytubby-type TV characters - imagine Goldeneye-meets-Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-meets-Any Tim Burton film and you'll be close). In truth, some of the surreal moments and the more graphic effects may get a little too much for younger kids at times, but these moments are few and far between.

Ok, it's a 'U' certificate and you may well have to sit through the trailer for 'See Spot Run', but don't let that put you off. This is one of the better films you'll see this year, and the best out over Easter by quite a way. Go and have some fun.

8/10

This film takes a child's cartoonish idea of a spy and runs with it, leaning into a charming campiness that brought joy to my heart. As an adult watching this film, I am impressed by the directing in this film: great performances and expressive, well thought out camera-work. This, combined with excessively creative production design (which clearly had passionate people behind it) creates a world that, frankly, feels like it was genuinely thought up by a children, albeit a team of extremely creative and funny ones with an impressive understanding of filmmaking. I generally judge children's films for how well i can enjoy them, as an adult, since any film that has to pander to a child mind to succeed is lacking an essential intellectual, critically examinable element. This film half succeeds at that, while also clearly and specifically pandering to children. It's like a live-action kid's cartoon, and the director/cinematographer did a great job at achieving that specific aesthetic.

I often struggle when evaluating children's movies, because I am not a child. But the sheer creativity of this film, and how competently made it is in every department-art design, cinematography, directing, writing, score, everything-makes Spy Kids, undeniably, a work of art.