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I went
to "Spy Kids" with my 3 year old grandson.
There were a lot of other children in the theater as well.
They all sat quietly through the entire movie, laughing now
and then at appropriate points. The
movie was interesting enough that I wasn’t bored, and in fact I
was amused throughout most of the film.
Here’s
the basic story… Gregorio Cortez (Antonio Banderas) and his wife
Ingrid (Carla Gugino) are
retired spies who have settled down to raise a family in the
suburbs. Well, they
are not exactly retired, they are now “consultants” doing
their spy-work by telecommuting.
They seem to have happy quiet, almost too dull lives.
Until… the evil genius, Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming),
entraps them in his Willy Wonka-like castle.
That’s when the kids come to the rescue using all types
of James Bond-like gadgets and gizmos.
The
Cortez kids, Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara), are
cute, but not too cutie-pie.
There was some sibling violence that annoyed me, but
generally the humor was clever and clean, if kind of silly.
For example at one point the good guys are about to be
overrun by Floop’s bizarre army, and Gregorio takes a firm
stance and says “I’ll take the hundred on the left, you take
the hundred on the right.”
I dunno, I got a kick out of it.
I also got a kick out of the fact that we’re talking
about Mexican super-spies. I
don’t think Mexico has been considered a serious world player
since the Alamo.
But then again, why not
Mexico? I am so used to seeing movies based in California, it was
really refreshing to have a different setting.
But more importantly, the film was written and directed by
Spanish surnamed Robert Rodriguez, and he took the opportunity to
make a few Mexican kids the heroes.
While I think all kids can identify with the film, I expect
that it will have a special place in the hearts of Hispanic
children for years to come.
The film is loaded with
special effects. I
think we’ve seen them all before, and maybe even seen them
executed better, but I don’t fault the film for that.
I have a feeling that the producers had a very, limited
budget for this children’s film, and they did the absolute best
they could.
I
must admit that it bothers me a bit to see Banderas in this film.
I think he is a good sport, a fine actor in general, and in
fact a fine comic actor in particular.
I thought he was great in Zorro.
So what bothers me about his being in the film?
Well, though I liked this movie it is clearly not a major
“A” movie. I
hope he did this movie because he thought it would be fun, as
opposed to doing the movie because he has no other offers.
I’d like to see him in more films.
Maybe Hollywood would do us all a favor and take a few
films away from the overexposed Nicholas Cage and give a few to
Banderas.
The
film did its job very well.. it kept the children in the audience
quiet and engaged, while not boring the adults.
At the end of the film I turned to my grandson, hoping to
get a capsule review from a young child.
“How did you like the movie?” I asked.
He replied “I have to pee-pee.”
Ah, I thought that translates into 3 pops out of 4.
You may not think “I have to pee-pee” is a good review,
but it really is – after all it meant that my grandson was so
enthralled by the movie that he was willing to wait until the end
of the film.
-- Pappy
( 3 out of 4 pops )
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about this film with other Popkorn Junkies |
