Psycho's Movie Reviews #359: Spy Kids (2001)

Spy Kids is a 2001 American spy action comedy adventure film written, edited, directed and produced by Robert Rodriguez, co-produced by Elizabeth Avellán, and starring Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alan Cumming, Teri Hatcher, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo, Robert Patrick, Tony Shalhoub, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, and Mike Judge. The first instalment in the Spy Kids film series, the film was theatrically released in the United States on March 30, 2001, by Dimension Films. It grossed $147 million worldwide and holds a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was nominated for Best Fantasy Film at the 28th Saturn Awards, but lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Three sequels were released: The Island of Lost Dreams in 2002, Game Over in 2003, and All the Time in the World in 2011. An animated reboot series, Spy Kids: Mission Critical, premiered in 2018.

Plot

Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez are spies with two children, Carmen and Juni, whom they shield from their lives to protect them from inherent danger. They work for the OSS doing office consultant work, but are suddenly called back to active field work to find missing agents. Gregorio suspects children's television host Fegan Floop has kidnapped them, mutating them into his "FoOglies" – creatures on his show. The children are left in the care of their uncle, Felix Gumm.

The couple is captured by Floop's "Thumb-Thumbs", robots whose arms, legs, and heads resemble oversized thumbs, and taken to his castle. Felix is alerted to the parents’ capture, activates the fail-safe, and tells the children the truth about their parents, and that he is not their uncle but an agent sent to watch over them. The house is attacked by Ninja Thumb-Thumbs, and Felix is captured while the children escape alone on the submarine, the NIX Super Guppy, set to auto-pilot to a safe house.

At the safe house, the children discover their parents' were spies and decide to rescue them. Inside Floop's castle, he introduces his latest creation to Mr. Lisp, small child-shaped robots. They plan to replace the world leaders' children with these super-strong robots to control the world. The androids have no artificial intelligence yet, so they can't function outside of their regular programming. Lisp is furious, demanding usable androids.

Floop, with his second-in-command Alexander Minion, interrogates Gregorio and Ingrid about 'The Third Brain'. Ingrid knows nothing of it, while Gregorio claims he had destroyed the brain years ago. After Floop leaves, Gregorio reveals to Ingrid that the Third Brain was a secret OSS project he had worked on: an AI brain with all the skills of the entire OSS. The project was scrapped as being too dangerous, but Gregorio just couldn't destroy the final prototype.

At the safe house, Carmen and Juni are visited by OSS agent Ms. Gradenko. Giving Carmen a bracelet as a sign of trust, she asks about the Third Brain, but she doesn't know anything. Gradenko orders the house to be dismantled, and Juni sees Ninja Thumbs outside destroying the submarine. With Gradenko's intentions revealed, Juni accidentally exposes the Third Brain, and a BuddyPack chase ensues. Carmen gets the brain, and she and Juni escape. She realizes too late the bracelet from Gradenko has a tracking device, and she and Juni are attacked by their robot counterparts. Though Juni tries to destroy it, he can't, so the robots take Third Brain and fly away.

Meanwhile, back at the castle, Gregorio tells Ingrid Minion used to work for the OSS, but was fired after he reported him tampering with the Third Brain project. With it, Floop can achieve his goal, but he wishes to continue his children's show. Minion has different plans and takes over, locking Floop inside his "virtual room," the chamber where he films his television series. Carmen and Juni receive reluctant help from Gregorio's estranged brother Isador "Machete" Cortez when they show up at his spy shop. He refuses to accompany them, so they steal some gear and take his spy plane, the RX Express, to fly to Floop's castle. After a few mishaps, Carmen and Juni eject themselves from the plane before it crashes into the castle, and they enter via the underwater entrance.

While their children infiltrate the castle, Juni rescues Floop who helps him and Carmen release their parents. Together they trap Minion and, confronting Lisp and Gradenko, the family is beset by all 500 robot children. Machete busts through the window, reconciling with Gregorio and joining the family to fight. However, at the last moment, Floop reprogram the robots to change sides. The 500 super-strong robots quickly overpower Minion, Lisp, and Gradenko. With advice from Juni, Floop introduces the robot versions of Carmen and Juni on his show. At home, some time later, the family's breakfast is interrupted by Devlin, the director of the OSS, with a mission for Carmen and Juni. They accept on the condition that the Cortezes work together as a family.

Production

Robert Rodriguez's first family-oriented production was the short film Bedhead (1991); since the release of El Mariachi (1992) a year later, he desired to make the same type of full-length family features as he experience in his childhood. He wanted a product that felt like it was written, directed, and produced by a kid. His initial plan for that type of film was children initially not knowing their parents were spies until they had to save their captured parents, and an antagonist with the juvenile fantasticism of Willy Wonka. He noted the villains' imaginativeness was the man who seems to be the main bad guy at first turns into a protagonist and his comedic sidekick becomes the main villain. Designs such as the Thumb Thumbs were drawings Rodriguez did as an adolescent.

Tony Shalhoub joined the project as a Robert Rodriguez fan and a father of two children wanting to act in a children's film. After reading the script, he met Rodriguez and his wife Elizabeth Avellán, and was shown concept drawings of designs and animations for the actor to get an idea of the style of the film. When acting, Shalhoub's experience of reading books and playing with his kids enabled him to view Rodriguez's child-like scenarios from the perspective of his children.

The distorted heads growing out of Alexander Minion when mutated by the machines were gel melded by Rodriguez and, according to Shalhoub, very lightweight.

Most of Spy Kids' 48 days of filming was in Austin, Texas, although some exterior shots were done in South America.

Music

The film score is written by John Debney and Danny Elfman, with contributions from a variety of others, including director Robert Rodriguez and Marcel Rodriguez. Among Elfman's contributions is "Floop's Song (Cruel World)", which is performed by Cumming. Los Lobos covers the Tito Puente song, "Oye Como Va" (adapted as "Oye Como Spy" by David Garza and Robert Rodriguez). The song was nominated for "Outstanding Song in a Motion Picture Soundtrack" at the 2002 ALMA Awards. The closing theme, "Spy Kids (Save the World)", is performed by the Los Angeles indie pop band, Fonda.

The score won an award at the ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards.

Release/Reception/Box Office

In March 2001, Spy Kids screened for exhibitors at the ShoWest in Las Vegas.

Spy Kids was the first film to be promoted as a part of a two-year between Miramax and Pop Secret signed on June 2001. Formalized thanks to the successes of Spy Kids and Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), the deal stated annually, and for five films, Pop Secret popcorn would be present at theatre screenings and as tie-ins for video releases. For Spy Kids, Pop Secret popcorn was in theatres for the August re-release, while on home video Pop Secret Special Editions were issued that came with collectibles and tickets to win prizes. Target also offered purchasers of Spy Kids copies free Pop Secret popcorn.

Former promotion executive vice president at Miramax, Lori Sale, admitted the McDonalds tie-ins for the first three Spy Kids were the three best of the company.

On Rotten Tomatoes, Spy Kids has a 93% approval rating based on 129 reviews and an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A kinetic and fun movie that's sure to thrill children of all ages." On Metacritic it has a score of 71 out of 100 based on 27 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars and called it "a treasure". He wrote, "Movies like Spy Kids are so rare. Families are often reduced to attending scatological dumber-and-dumbest movies like See Spot Run--movies that teach vulgarity as a value. Spy Kids is an intelligent, upbeat, happy movie that is not about the comedy of embarrassment, that does not have anybody rolling around in dog poop, that would rather find out what it can accomplish than what it can get away with." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "It's entertaining and inoffensive, a rare combination in kids' films, which are usually neither." Lael Loewenstein of Variety observed, "A full-blown fantasy-action adventure that also strenuously underscores the importance of family, Spy Kids is determined to take no prisoners in the under-12 demographic, a goal it sometimes dazzlingly achieves. Robert Rodriguez's film, in which two kids become real spies to save the world from a mad genius, fulfils kids' empowerment fantasies and features enough techno-wizardry and cool f/x to satisfy those weaned on videogames."

Spy Kids opened theatrically in 3,104 venues on March 30, 2001, earning $26.5 million in its first weekend and ranking first in the North American box office. It held the number one spot for three weeks before being toppled by the second weekend earnings of Bridget Jones's Diary, which was also released by Miramax. The film ultimately grossed $112.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $35.2 million internationally for a worldwide total of $147.9 million.

Budget $35 million

Box office $147.9 million

My Review

You shouldn't come to this movie expecting it to be serious or logical because it really isn't. Instead it is silly, goofy and really very daft but still quite good fun for slightly older children and also for adults. The plot is pretty much summed up by the title insofar as you really need to know what is going on because it doesn't make much sense. The film is really about the kids becoming spies and playing with gadgets etc on their way to becoming heroes of a sort. It never takes itself too seriously and it draws humour from this approach well, making it easy to relax and watch because, yes it's silly, but at least it knows it is silly. The Floop creations are too silly to appeal to adults but will probably provide some laughs for kids but generally the film gets the tone right for both groups.

Rodriguez directs with his usual approach and I quite enjoyed the effect it had here because it does suit the silly, hyper material (which he also wrote). The effects are mainly good and it should work for most kids in the way that older boys like their gadgets and fantasy video games. The cast did it for me as well, featuring as it did a lot of people who've worked with Rodriguez before. Banderas and Gugino are both sexy and cool in the parental roles but it is Vega and Sabara who lead the film. Neither of them are typically "cute kids" and it helped me enjoy the film for them to be quite natural and buy into the material. Support is surprisingly classy and most of them work. I didn't like Cumming at all but that was more to do with his character; Shalhoub was OK, Hatcher was fun, Cheech pops up briefly, Patrick has a small role, Trejo is ever reliable and George Clooney puts in a small but amusing appearance.

Overall this is not a great film because it all nonsense but then, as a kids' film, it doesn't matter so much. The energy, pace and sense of fun covers up for the daft central plot and nobody seems to be taking it seriously. Surprisingly fun to watch, even for adults and worth a look.

I really liked Spy Kids. I thought it was a very entertaining film, without taking itself too seriously. It was funny, intelligent and creative. What I mean by that, is that there is something for adults and older children as well as young kids. There was a fun script, that was intelligent and funny without being too artificial, and the direction from Robert Rodriguez was surprisingly effective. The plot is original, the thumb people were great fun, the action was fast-paced, the scenery was lovely and the special effects and stunts are splendid. And the soundtrack was awesome. The acting was very good, with Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara spirited in the two leads and their constant bickering was a delight. Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino have fun as the parents, while Alan Cumming and Tony Shalhoub come close to stealing the film as Floop and Minion. The film also has a nice message; my only complaints are the rather over-emphasised ending, and I did feel that Cheech Marin and Danny Trejo didn't have enough screen time to shine properly but I did enjoy their brief appearances. All in all, a very underrated and fun movie. 8/10