2001 / 88 Minutes / PG
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

Into the arid cinematic landscape comes a very fun little movie custom built for kids. Most kids movies are nothing more than a collection of fart jokes and poop jokes strung together by only the thinnest of plots: usually involving a big game or a dog. So it is pretty darn refreshing to see a kids movie that actually acknowledges that its target audience is smarter than most movies give them credit for. It’s a movie that kids should eat up with a spoon: mostly because it shows that kids can do things for themselves. It lets kids watch other kids live out their fantasy of saving the world and defeating the bad guys. And it’s a lot of fun, even if you aren’t a kid anymore.

The movie starts with the kids, Juni and Carmen (Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega) being put to bed by their mother (Carla Gugino). The mother tells them a bedtime story about two rival spies who fell in love, got married, and had kids. Of course, it soon turns out that the story is true and it’s about their own parents. Soon, the parents are called into action when an evil mastermind and kids show host (Alan Cumming) unveils his plans to take over the world.

However, it’s been nearly a decade since they were last in action and they are both a little rusty…which leads to them being captured and put in peril. Who can rescue them? No one but their kids! The kids soon go into action, putting to use any number of spy gadgets that would make Q proud and using their heads. It shows that you should never underestimate a kid, as they are smart and resourceful and do a surprisingly good job. With a little help from a fake uncle (Cheech Marin) and their real uncle (Danny Trejo), they may just come through with flying colors.

The biggest ingredient of this film, the reason that it is so much fun, is that the film seems to have an overdose of imagination. This film, in fact, has more creativity pumping through it than any five average movies rolled into one. The sets of Cumming’s castle and evil fortress, for example, are amazingly imaginative. Cumming also employs some of the weirdest henchmen ever seen. He has a group of mutant minions made entirely of thumbs, for one thing, which leads to some very clever jokes. But these jokes are not bashed to death. They are done just enough to make them funny without showing up so often that they become tiresome. The gadgets are pretty clever too. I especially liked the electroshock gumballs.

What else works? The performances, for one thing. The kids were great. They do a great job of showing you the way average kids interact. They bicker, they insult one another, but they come through for each other when it counts. They were very good, more like small versions of adults than they were like the whiny little brats we get in most kid movies. The adults were very good as well. Gugino and Antonio Banderas are great as the imperiled parents and Alan Cumming is great as the villain. He reminded me of what you might get if you crossed Pee Wee Herman, Willy Wonka and Dr. No. Very funny. And it was great to see Danny Trejo as the Latino answer to Q.

The film has a great deal of fun with its spy premise and its gadgets, it’s genuinely creative and funny and it is perfect for kids. It is a delightful flight of fantasy. The only thing I can think of that I couldn’t quite get into was the sheer oddness of the whole thing. But it’s only a minor quibble. The movie is paced at a rapid clip, fun and has a nice celebrity cameo toward the end. If you are looking for a good time, “Spy Kids” is about the best you’re going to get on the current film market.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 30th, 2001 at 3:31 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.