Cast: Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Alan Cumming, Daryl Sabara, Teri Hatcher, Cheech Marin, Robert Patrick, Tony Shalhoub, Danny Trejo
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Producers: Robert Rodriguez, Elizabeth Avellan
Screenplay: Robert Rodriguez
Cinematography: Guillermo Navarro
Music: John Debney, Danny Elfman
U.S. Distributor: Dimension Films
No one who has seen any of Robert Rodriguez's other films, most of which have been drenched in blood, would assume that he had the ability to craft such a fine, relatively non-violent example of pure family entertainment. Spy Kids is fun without being groundbreaking. It's also the kind of film that parents can drop their kids off to see without worrying that they'll be inundated by curse words and other "inappropriate" material, and that adults can watch by themselves without the fear of being choked by puerile rubbish. Most importantly, this is one of those rare offerings that families can see together - which is actually the ideal way to approach Spy Kids, because the main theme on display here is that of family togetherness.
The storyline isn't terribly complex, and the movie develops in a cartoonish, tongue-in-cheek fashion that promises never to take anything too seriously. Spy Kids isn't exactly a parody, but it doesn't mind occasionally poking fun at staples of the espionage genre. Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) are retired spies who gave up their secret agent duties to act as "consultants" while raising two kids: Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara). But Gregorio and Ingrid still have adventure in their blood, and, when a mission calls, they can't resist. Unfortunately, they're rusty, and end up being captured by the diabolical Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming), a children's TV show host who is planning to use an army of robot children to take over the world. So it's Carmen and Juni to the rescue. After paying their dour uncle Machete (Danny Trejo) a visit, they load up on cool gadgets and head for Floop's castle to save their mom and dad.
One common failing of the generic family film is to make everyone over the age of twelve terminally stupid. Another is to make the child protagonists either (a) unbearably cute or (b) irritatingly obnoxious. These are pitfalls that Rodriguez consciously avoids. Carmen and Juni are cute, likable kids - but not too cute or cloyingly likable. And, although the adults are occasionally prone to doing dumb things, they are presented sympathetically. They're not all ogres with pea-sized brains, a la the crooks in Home Alone.
Spy Kids' star power comes from the likes of Antonio Banderas, Teri Hatcher (playing a henchwoman suffering through a bad hair day), and Alan Cumming (doing his best Pee Wee Herman imitation). They, along with Carla Gugino, Tony Shalhoub, and Robert Patrick, all do fine jobs, but the spotlight belongs to Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara. Those two make us believe they're brother and sister - they fight, argue, and call each other names (although not all the time, and not to any serious degree), but, underneath it all, it's impossible to miss the affection. Carmen is the more mature of the two; Juni is the clown - his occasional pratfalls provide a slapstick element to Spy Kids' comic side.
The film moves at a brisk pace that never threatens to bog down. In addition to the humor, which surfaces on a consistent basis, there's a lot of adventure and action (although very little in the nature of serious violence). Several of the creatures living in Floop's castle look like refugees from the Star Wars cantina, and there is a race of human-sized thumbs that are, predictably, clumsy ("all thumbs"). Since the film was made on a modest budget, digital effects were used liberally to spruce up the look. Their incorporation is sometimes a little too obvious, but there are times (such as in the "Virtual Room" or when a jigsaw-puzzle floor drops away into nothingness) when they work. There are also numerous neat gadgets - everything from a super-fast, single-passenger spy plane to bubble gum that packs a real punch.
For Rodriguez, who began his career with great promise as the hotshot director of the $6000 wonder, El Mariachi, it has been a while since he has been embraced by the critics or the public. Spy Kids proves that he can be as adept at the family genre as he is at making ultra-gory revenge and horror films. With this charming and unpretentious effort, Rodriguez has successfully put the "family" back into the term "family film."
© 2001 James Berardinelli