Spy Kids (2001)

"Spy Kids" was a big kids hit! I thought it was pretty cool that there are these two kids Carmen and Juni Cortez who have to save their parents from danger. But I think it could have been better. I didn't really like how they showed how Carmen and Juni's parents got married because seriously, lets get on with the movie!!! But I LOVED the cast. Alexa Vega, i thought was the best one in the cast! She is a great teenage actress and should go really far in the Hollywood movie making business. Daryl Sabara was so cute playing Juni and should go far as well. There was Also Antonio Banderas, and it was an okay movie, not the best, but i expected better.

Fmovies: "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

The first time I saw this movie was in '07 on my father's ranch. I turned to him with joy and wonder and asked him, "Daddy, can I get sum'more popc'rn?" He laughed and brought out his belt. And we watched Spy Kids (2001) as the sun set below the Alabama cornfields. To this day I watch this movie daily.

This movie has changed my life for the better. It helped me when my father passed away from gonhorrea, when I failed college as an entomologist major and even when I lost the love of my life; my sister. This movie still reminds me of her smiling face, her pretty sun-kissed skin and ginger hair.

Whenever my depression worsens or my anxiety won't stop pestering me, I watch this movie. Whenever my hands bleed from working on the farm all day, I turn on Spy Kids (2001). This movie has been a life saver in more ways than one.

So, it's only fair to rate this movie a solid 9.5/10. Not a 10/10 because they didn't fall in love, maybe then I would've related to it more.

Spy Kids fmovies. Finally, a live-action family movie that entertained me and my wife immensely, while my six-year old daughter had a blast too!

The most obvious (and fitting) comparison film is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Amazing fantasy world, some true menace, and a great message about being true to yourself and your family.

Spy Kids as a family movie for the post-Matrix age. It's witty, but never falls into that oh-so-hip faux-ironic self awareness that plagues so many movies today. It hands you a fantasy world, and encourages you to believe in it.

It has a great deal of action and slapstick, but (thankfully) was completely missing the mean-spirited undertones of the slapstick in Home Alone.

Like all great children's literature or entertainment, Spy Kids doesn't talk down to kids. It assumes they're intelligent and can pay attention. Having said that, there are sections of the film that are hyperkinetic, but they flow naturally.

It has something of a similar vibe to the Pixar films (Toy Story 1&2, Bugs Life), without as many in-jokes. There are some wonderful adult-only laughs, mostly stemming from the trials and tribulations of being a parent.

It's PG for a reason. It's not for the youngest moviegoer. A mature 5 or a six-year-old is about as young as I'd recommend. There are some scary moments, ala Willy Wonka, or The Wizard of Oz. But that's "good scary" in my book, as opposed to needlessly scaring folks to death.

The message of family is delightful. The Cortez family is a *real* family. They have disagreements, but they love each other. Thankfully, Rodriguez avoids the sit-com smartmouth syndrome, and gives us kids we can believe.

And I love the fact that Rodriguez never downplays the Latino heritage of the family. Hey, I'm so Anglo I'm practically translucent, but it was such a refreshing change to not have typical whitebread heroes out to save the world.

Not since Bob (Porky's) Clark pulled A Christmas Story out of his hat has a director come up with such a pleasant surprise in a genre you'd never imagine. Summary? A cup of Bond, a splash of Willy Wonka, and a dash of The Matrix. Sit back and watch the fun!

This is a somewhat unusual film; it's a children's film, but it doesn't talk down to its audience. And as an added bonus, it can be watched even if you are over ten. As the far too little-known short Bedhead, Robert Rodriguez has here created a film for children, featuring children... which doesn't treat them with the lack of respect for the smarts and sense of logic that they do already possess. Adults often forget what children are like, and think of them as 'less' than the grownups. Rodriguez gives them(and us) a film that allows them a similar status to adults. The film has stuff that will appeal to kids(spy equipment hidden in children's things) but it isn't offensive to us who aren't. While it is more directed towards those of the preteen persuasion, it doesn't aim so low as to feel stupid for us who aren't of said persuasion. The plot is pretty good, though I guess it's not all that original... and as usual with children's films, the kids are the heroes, which puts too much pressure on them, as a Danish film critic so perfectly put it. The acting is a usual high(as most of the actors are quite talented), no performances really let you down, even the (intentionally)overplayed ones. The characters, many of them fairly clichéd and thin, are all credible. As with many(most) Rodriguez films, pretty much all of those that he's written, himself... there are subplots and such, many of which are either overly easily resolved or not properly addressed. The humor is pretty good, I laughed out loud several points, rather unusual for children's films, and I was never insulted by the humor. None of it tries too hard to garner laughs, either. The special effects are quite impressive, and though it's still evident that it's Rodriguez' mini studio, it will fool you for the very most part. The action is quite intense and exciting, and like the humor, it's got Rodriguez' unique touch. Any fan of Rodriguez(such as myself, which is by far the main reason I watched this very film in the first place) will enjoy this, if maybe not to the same extent as one of his typical films. I recommend this to any fan of Rodriguez or any of the actors, and definitely most kids. Very much worth watching, even if you've outgrown childhood. Indulge your inner kid. 7/10

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!