Kailansorac
Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
Aedonerre
I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.
Rio Hayward
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
WakenPayne
Childhood nostalgia, that is simply the 2 words why I saw this movie again. I watched the first three movies quite a bit as a kid and I can even tell you why. Around the time I was into James Bond so when I saw this movie I saw it as the same except with kids (I was 7!). So watching this movie again did bring back some childhood memories but that's about all it did.The movie is about the 2 world's best spies who are married. They retire once their children are born. 9 years later the 2 kids - Carmen and Juni are keeping secrets from their parents - Carmen skips school and all of Juni's friends are as real as the CGI in this movie. Their parents find a mission to track missing agents and through that we find out a kids show host named Floop (Alan Cumming) has the technology to change people's appearances into crazy-as-hell looking characters for his show as well as build robot kids - the robot kids being for some guy's army. After they get captured it is up to Carmen and Juni to save their parents.Well to this movie's credit it has a lot of imagination to it. Which is a pretty good thing for the most part. I say for the most part because the CGI of some of them looks really dated. Not to say I still didn't appreciate the thought and effort but... yeah some of it just looks a little bit creepy to show younger children at least.The only other thing I can really say about it is Alan Cumming's performance as Floop. He just nails whimsical, head-in-the-clouds, crazy inventor, Children's TV Show Host perfectly. If I were to talk about the acting some more Alexa Vega does an okay job but Daryl Sabara is AWFUL! I mean I know I shouldn't be too harsh on him, because he's just a kid but here, I don't think he's even trying.If there was one thing I hated, and I mean LOATHED it would have to be the humour. It was terrible, I mean it might make some kids laugh but most of it is the bottom of the barrel toilet humour that dominates awful kids films.Here's another thing, we have too many morals. Or at least the screenwriter has no idea how to balance them out. On one hand we have importance of family and that message is delivered okay, but when Floop tells Juni that all it was about was purity of heart and mind, it almost comes out of nowhere. There maybe other morals that they tried to get across but I really just couldn't see them.So does Spy Kids hold up in my eyes? No, and why should it? All it has to offer in terms of quality really is one supporting performance and the imagination behind it. With that said this could entertain your 7-10 year old for an hour and a half and it is relatively harmless. If you're babysitting a kid sometime - check it out, or if you want to see how childhood nostalgia holds up.
Steve Pulaski
Spy Kids is a special kind of family film that will please adults and children alike. What a rarity. I critique family films by judging if both the parent and the child will enjoy seeing the film. The parents buy the movie or the ticket for the kids, so they should both be provided with entertainment.Director Robert Rodriguez is all about special effects. So it comes as no surprise that Spy Kids relies heavily on technology. If Rodriguez had made this in the late eighties or early nineties, it would get more of a reputation as a cheesy, low budget picture, and wouldn't be remembered today in the hearts of many adolescents. If the first film would be made in 2011, we'd get the creepy hybrid of motion capture-like animation for most of this, most likely. So it's nice to see Spy Kids was made just in the nic of time when technology could produce such a fun, original picture.The story is about two youngsters, Carmen (Vega) and Juni (Sabara), whose parents (Banderas and Gugino) are undercover spies. They don't know their parents are spies, but after staying with their "Uncle" Felix (Marin), he tells them about their parents during an emergency, and sends both of them off to rescue their parents from an evil TV show host named Fegan Floop (Cumming).Spy Kids is only limited by the imagination from Robert Rodriguez head. My favorite scene is when Carmen and Juni are speeding on what resembles a water jet-ski pod (I'm just guessing, I really don't think Rodriguez knew what he was coming up with either), and evading the ninjas by just half a second. Something about that made me think back to when I was a kid, on my bed (or my spaceship) rolling around fighting imaginary bad guys.The CGI works, but it's flawed when it comes to the thumb creatures. The thumbs look blocky, and not very life-like. Not like anything is, but this picture was flowing perfectly up until the "thumb thumbs" came in. They are just assembled awkwardly, and lack animation. I was actually hoping two would go to war with each other if you know what I mean.The two leads are fairly decent actors, not perfect, but they have some time to practice, and I think these films are good places to start. The storyline was the least of my concerns, I just wanted good-humored, little to non-violent fun, and Spy Kids works. Its charm springs from the fact that it is just a kid's film, and it doesn't worry that it is being too unrealistic. It's meant to be that way.Starring: Alex Vega, Daryl Sabara, Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Cheech Marin, and Danny Trejo. Directed by: Robert Rodriguez.
g-bodyl
I thought Spy Kids was a pretty cool movie to watch. I did not expect much of it at first but I'm glad I saw it because I really enjoyed it. This was not the bad movie that I had anticipated. I even liked the sequel to this movie.This is about very young spies who are on a mission to save the United States, of course.The cast is pretty much an all-star cast. The spies played by Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara are pretty good. The parents played by Antonio Banderas and Carlos Gugino are wonderful.Overall, this is a good piece of work. I also like to mention that some of these gadgets are cool. I rate this film 8/10.
BA_Harrison
Forget about discovering that your parents were a pair of weirdo wizards (yawn!): in Spy Kids, Carmen Cortez (Alexa Vega) and her younger brother Juni (Daryl Sabara) find out that their mum and dad are ex-secret agents, which is a whole lot cooler in my book (I guess being raised on James Bond films might have affected my opinion somewhat). This means that when Mr and Mrs Cortez (suave Antonio Banderas and yummy Carla Gugino) are captured by criminals intent on taking over the world with an army of robot children, it's up to the kids to save the day, equipped with all sorts of ultra-cool, high-tech gadgetry supplied by their uncle Machete (Danny Trejo).Pure, unadulterated slam-bang craziness from the warped mind of Robert Rodriguez, Spy Kids is cool, action packed fun for the whole family —perfect entertainment for a rainy Sunday afternoon on the sofa with the children. There's constant kiddy-centric action loaded with inventive visuals, weird creatures and snazzy special effects galore, guaranteed to keep the sprogs glued to the screen from start to finish, whilst easy-on-the-eye couple Banderas and Gugino are there to give the adults something to get excited about too.
