Spy Kids

Rating:
Summary: A kid's movie for all ages
Review: It's rare today for a children's movie to be entertaining to both kids and adults. But Robert Rodriquez's "Spy Kids" does just that.

At its heart, it's still a kids flick, but one that is put together well with style, good dialogue, good laughs and lots of fun. It avoids the general kid movie pitfalls of a clichéd plot, flat characters and predictable dialogue. Sure kids don't mind those faults, but they cause films to be quickly forgotten years down the road. But films like "Spy Kids" are ones parents don't mind watching with their kids, and adults can even watch alone to entertain that inner child in them without killing brain cells like most children's fare does.

Nope, Rodriquez's film is fun and fast, telling a kid's version of James Bond, but with heart. The movie's opening is especially wonderful as the mother of the two future spy kids tells the "fabled" story of the two spies who met and fell in love. It sets a wonderful tone of the importance of family and the action quality of the film.

Of course, Rodriquez's usual cast of regulars come back, such as Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo and Antonio Banderas, but the real stars of the film are the two pint-sized spies, who hold the film well enough on their own. Their sibling banter is fun, realistic and wholly enjoyable.

Also, Danny Elfman's score is wonderful, heavy in Mexican-influenced themes. He wrote some wonderfully demented children's songs incorporated in the film that reminded me of his work on the songs for "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

This one's well worth seeing even if you don't have kids. Let it bring back the child in you.

Rating:
Summary: Fun Movie for Kids
Review: "Spy Kids" is great fun for its intended audience, kids under 14 or so. It has lots of hi-tech gizmos, which kids love, as well as a predictable good-guys-win plot, which kids also love.

This movie lets kids pretend to live out a favorite fantasy -- pretending they are saving the world. Adults, however, may not really appreciate the overly predictable plot and characters. But if you're a kid, or just one at heart, this movie provides an hour or two of mindless fun.

Rating:
Summary: A whole lot of fun for kids....and grown-ups
Review: Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, The Faculty) has created one fun movie for kids in Spy Kids. This guy has some imagination and he shows that with this movie. ...He really knows what it takes to entertain a young audience. At the same time Spy Kids entertains grown-ups like myself with it's wild imagination and cool action. Rodriguez is also one of the most creative director's out there, After watching this film and the second one I have no doubt of his talent what so ever.

Spy Kids is a dream come true for a child's imagination. There's big robots shaped like thumbs, cool gadgets, dream like atmospheres and clever dialogue and humor. The kids aren't the best actors like Richard Roeper said, for instance when they punch a rock hard robot or a brick wall they just say "ouch" and it's not believeable that they just got hurt at all. I think Roeper was too hard on them in the second one though as they showed great improvement. Their performances are actually a lot of fun in part 2 which makes that one surprisingly better.

More about this film though, Alan Cummings is great as the Pee Wee Herman like villain Floop who's not really evil, just will do anything for a better show. He only had a cameo in the second film unfortunetly but here he's a lot of fun. Some critic said he does nothing for him as an actor unless he's painted green like he was in Flinstones Viva Las Vegas. I think that isn't right at all, Cummings is an actor with a lot of energy and ability and he shows it here. He steals the show here ..., no he doesn't have to be painted green to be enterrtaining. Besides him being good Antonio Banderas and the one that plays his wife are very good too. This is a very well casted movie.

Rating:
Summary: Fun for all ages, a nice suprise.
Review: I didn't go see this in the theater because the movie trailers led me to believe this film would be a bomb. Only after hearing great reviews from friends and family did I get the rental. What a pleasant surprise - especially with Rodriguez as the director (also known for Desperado). The kids are great in this movie because they aren't little shirley temple sugercandy, but rather realistic kids put in a fantasy of sci-spy magic. The plot was average but in a children's movie this is expected due to short attention spans. Many cute asides (harmless) throughout to keep the adults laughing too. A nice film that boys, girls, dads and moms will enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Are you people high?
Review: Spy kids is undoubtedly the WORST movie ever created! Spy kids had absolutely no appeal to all. I was very sursprised at this movie because I saw that it was written and directed by Robert Rodriguez (One of my favorite's "the faculty"). I like to keep an open mind but this movie is PATHETIC. the thumb things!? HOW RETARTED! the special effects are just bad and the acting by the children is atrocious! I saw the one kid interviewed and he is like "um...we-ll...um..." He can barely talk! Great casting guys! This movie also wastes great acting talent...Antonio Banderas and Alan Cumming! What are they doing in a movie called spy kids? This movie is absolutely terrible and should never have even been released! AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
OVERALL SCORE: 39/100
Direction:8/20
Plot:7/20
Cast:15/20
Fun:3/20
Special Effects:6/20

Rating:
Summary: Great for Kids 7-12
Review: This is great for kids 7-12. Heck, it is great for us adults, too! Plenty of action that is just a little violent, but clean language and generally good-guy-bad-guy is easy to spot. The creations of Floop are great and Floop's transition to a good guy is really great for developing minds. Have your kids watch it ... and you watch it, too!

Rating:
Summary: magic mysteries
Review: This DVD is something for the whole family.Here's a little about this DVD.This is a good story about an unusual family. the family has a life time of surprise from the begining. well if you haven't seen this i would highly recomend it. also i haven't seen the 2nd one but if you like this then like myself i would go and see the 2nd one. but back to the story. when the kids find out who there parents really are they say they aren't cool enough. but then they get the hang of all the mysteries and secrets and why they never knew.to find out the end see the movie!!!

Rating:
Summary: Robert Rodriguez is My Friend!
Review: Why is Robert Rodriguez my friend? Anyone that can keep a nine year old enchanted for 90 minutes is my friend.

A friend of mine came from Mexico for a visit. He brought his nine year old son with him. The kid doesn't speak a word of English. The kid was board and bouncing off the walls. Just to keep the kid occupied, I put on the DVD version of "Spy Kids." On the DVD version there is a Spanish language track.

During the two day visit, that kid must have watched "Spy Kids" about 30 times. At the end of the visit, I had to give them my copy. The kid was so in love with "Spy Kids."

This is a wonderful movie! Not only does children like the picture, but adults will like it too. If you have kids, or looking for a DVD that a nine year old would like, get "Spy Kids."

Rating:
Summary: It is a Disney hit
Review: The first action movie. It is really suppose to be by Disney. Spy Kids rocks to the max. When I saw Rugrats In Paris and The Emperor's New Groove I saw the teaser trailer for the movie. It is all about two smart and adorable kids try to find their parents and from the evil character named Floop. You see Juni didn't really find that Floop a genuis on what he did to the parents. Kidnapping is not cool. I think Spy Kids 2 The Island of Lost Dreams is much better than Spy Kids The Rescue of the Parents. That was this movie should be called. Spy Kids: The Rescue of the Parents.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, not-so-great DVD
Review: I enjoyed this movie very much; even paid to see it twice in the theaters. If it had been up to my 5-year-old, we'd have seen it a lot more. So I picked up the DVD as soon as I could.

Unfortunately, the DVD disappoints. The alternate shark scene that precipitated the rerelease? Nowhere to be found. Neither are any other cool extras that I love to play around with and are the real reason I got a DVD player in the first place. If you've switched to DVDs, get it for the movie. But if you can find it cheaper on VHS, it's one of the few movies just as worthwhile picking up in that format.