Spy Kids (2001)

Directed by: Robert Rodriguez | 88 minutes | action, comedy, family, adventure | Actors: Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Alan Cumming, Tony Shalhoub, Teri Hatcher, Cheech Marin, Robert Patrick, Danny Trejo, Mike Judge, Richard Linklater, Guillermo Navarro, Johnny Reno, Shannon Shea, Norman Cabrera, Trant Batey, George Clooney

Brave family man Gregorio and caring housewife Ingrid Cortez were once highly competitive spies in the service of the OSS. Now they worry about their daughter Carmen, who regularly skips school and finds her parents and brother boring. And because of their son Juni, who suffers from warts from permanent sweating, has no other friends than the ones he makes up himself and loses himself completely in the television show of his great hero Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming). Before Gregorio and Ingrid can come up with a solution to these domestic problems, they receive an alarming message. All the spies who worked on the secret OSS project ‘The Third Brain’ in the past are gone. Gregorio is the last remaining contestant. They head out, of course, leaving Carmen and Juni in the hands of Uncle Felix (Cheech Marin), at least Carmen and Juni always thought he was their uncle, but when their house is raided, they get a crash course on their parent’s past. and about the spy business. Uncle Felix turns out not to be a real uncle, but a former colleague of their parents. This is just one of the things that turns out to be different from what they always thought.

Their fully automated flight leads to a safe house. At first glance an ordinary beach hut, but once inside the residence turns out to be chock full of high-tech stuff and other things that are indispensable for spies. Even within this highly secured safe house, however, Carmen and Juni are not safe and must not only flee again, but also save their parents. Everything indicates that these are imprisoned in the castle of Juni’s great hero Fegan Floop. This James Bond for kids is really fun. One adventure follows the other at a nice fast pace and in addition to the obligatory emotional and educational moments, the film is bursting with tension, humor and strange complications that are extraordinarily original. Particularly infectious is the fun of the entire cast, which is best reflected in sex bomb Teri Hatcher who plays the villainous spy Ms. Gradenko walks around with an almost bald head after an accident with fire, with a pathetic strand of hair still fluttering here and there. Even George Clooney’s tiny roll at the end sparkles. The gadgets are a very special mix of life-size toys and high-tech inventions. The vessel that takes Carmen and Juni to the safe house is a large toy fish with lots of technically advanced gadgets inside. Also nice are the bizarre, eccentric inventions in the castle of Floop, which often have a very surprising effect.

Robert Rodriguez has invented his own genre with ‘Spy Kids’. A spy film for and by children, not armed with a silly magnifying glass and some powder to detect fingerprints, but equipped with the very latest technical gadgets, they bravely go into battle against the most dangerous opponents. Fresh and sparkling.