[.ca] Spy Kids (Widescreen)

a great first!:
this movie was real good!when i first saw the trailer i didint think it would be that good!but we were going to see a movie but the tickets were sold out,so we just decided to go see this!i was surprised of how good it was!this movie is awsome!

Spykids are awesome!:
I find Spykids one very cool and like the way Carmen is always doing handsprings and stuff. I think everybody should see the Spykids movie. Ever since I have seen the Spykids movie I have been a big Spykids fan. All the girls were talking about it a lot and I KNEW I had to go see it. Even my dad likes it... so even parents should go watch Spykids!

Refreshing family fun, but not Bond:
This is like Bond for the family, some say... Yeah, right. If your child has ever seen a Bond movie, he (or she) will be more inclined to like Bond more, depending on which era of special effects they've seen. If you want this as a taste of Bond, think again. Spy movies are all over, all of which are more Bond-esque: I Spy, xXx, The Bourne Identity, Minority Report (does that count?) Agent Cody Banks, Agent Cody Banks 2 (both PG) and, of course, the real thing, Die Another Day. However, if you're in the mood for zany action, zanier gadgets, wacky villains, odd creatures, and jokes that you don't have to think about... then you found it. There are three choices of summer entertainment for your kid. If they're an action/spy fan, take 'em to Spy Kids. If they like the talking animal thing, it's Ice Age, or better yet, Cats and Dogs. And if they aren't fussy about their comedy but have some understanding of more sophisticated humor, Shrek's the deal. Monsters Inc. is endearing, but not particularly funny. Carmen and Juni are just two ordinary kids, even if Carmen has a habit of skipping school and Juni is picked on for his obsession with a certain TV show. But what they don't know are that their parents are really retired spies. (It'd be hard for them not to be, with the looks of Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino.) The two spy parents are called out of retirement to investigate the disappearance of three fellow agents. Since they're a little rusty, they quickly are caught. Carmen and Juni are sent by their Uncle Felix (not really related) to the "safehouse." They meet a spy there, who tells them a little about the "third brain," but that's just before she steals it and escapes with misshapen thugs. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad are in the castle of Floop (Alan Cummings, acting like Jim Carrey but with the right look for his role), a zany children's TV show host. Unfortunately, since he is attempting world domination by planting robotic children in the place of children like, say, the President's daughter, he cannot devote enough time to the show, which Juni happens to be be obsessed with. To give the robots the ability to function in society, Floop needs the "third brain." It's up to Carmen and Juni, along with their real uncle Machete (a spy turned mercenary gadget dealer) to turn Floop around and stop the robotic kids, as well as Floop's evil minion, Minion. This movie has the predictable gadgets (exploding candy, world's smallest camera) to Bond-ish (car/submarine, laser ring) to original. The original ones include a machine that reads clay scultpures to alter a person's face. Wow, sculptor would soon be the highest-paying job once everyone started turning themselves into Orlando Bloom and Monica Belucci. Soon all of the robotic kids are devoted to rescuing firefighters and such, and they're all one big happy family. There is one delightful spoof of spies in general: When the President contacts the Cortez family via TV, he has a black rectangle, hanging in midair, covering his eyes. When he's certain it's actually the Cortezes, he pulls the black strip away from his eyes and begins to talk. All in all, Spy Kids is a great movie, just perfect for kids who think of spies as using motion sensors and passwords instead of automatics and indestructible cars. This is not by any means the best performance of any of the actors (except perhaps Carla Gugino, but she is generally not in too many challenging roles). Alan Cumming is great, but his character in X2 is deeper. Rent it, but you may be owning it soon.

OK but Could Have Been Better:
We rented Spy Kids and it was ok and had a couple of scenes that were amusing but I think it could have been better. It was okay to watch once but not a movie I could watch again and again. It just didn't live up to all of the hype it received when it was released to the theaters though it did have a great cast, Antonio Banderas, Alan Cumming, etc but the movie seemed like it was rushed and over edited and some scenes are a little choppy and also this seems like a movie that a child would find more appealing then a adult but that is just my opinion.

Don't Watch This Movie:
I saw this movie when it first came out in theatres and was incredibly disappointed. I found this strange considering that, at that time, I was the film's target audience. There was so much room for a clever spoof of spies like James Bond, but the whole movie seemed like an insult to spy movies. The film struggles and fails to be funny. At the theatre where I saw it, no one laughed. I suppose the cheap special effects and awful plot are something to laugh at. But it just felt sad.