SPY KIDS (2001) *** They didn't make 'em like this in the old days, mainly because they didn't have special effects. Not that they didn't have any, but, you know...Alan Cummings' gruesome children's television show creatures are hyrids from the celluloid genes of Ronald McDonald and the gargoyle films of old. And all with genuinely authentic Beatelesque overtones! In fact most of the scenes in this cross-polonized James Bond meets Mighty Mouse meets the Waltons is derived from somewhere or another, but one would hope that no one is so cruel as to point it out to the kids. That would totally miss the point. This is a film to take your family to, to cheer at, to throw popcorn at the best of the many good lines, to laugh at villains, to walk home bravely through the park. The action is great and quite nearly constant, the characters paper-dolled onto the best of stereotypes, the gizmos admirably space-age clever, and the villains...well, it's probably the CIA in South America again, which only goes to show that they had good sources for all of their research. It's funny, Antonio Banderas gets across the political points with more punch here than in the screen adaptation of Isabel Allende's Of Love and Shadows. My favorite scene is where the two robot kids put up their fists and fly off into the sky with an old mariner statute in the background, with his fist to the sky.
back to Brilliant Observations on 1776 Films home
go back home, or send me email
no more reviews! I want to buy your novel!