Spy Kids (2001)

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I can't imagine that people and adults like this movie..... what Guys this movie is brainwashing your brain is not even that cool like you guys think it was it's garbage.Too many garbage names used by Juni really besides Juni is a horrible name for a kid. This movie was terrible what happened robert rodriguez you made good movies but this was a disaster film. Please don't even watch it ignore rotten tommatoes case they are lieing it was terrible it's by fat the worst movie I seen in years ignore the positive reviews that movie was terrible I hated it. GARBAGE.At least spy kids 3d was the best one haha.

I loved this film as a kid and wanted to go back and watch it again to spot all the moments I enjoyed first time around.I think all these years later the film still holds up as a bitter than average family film. I don't think the director needed to stretch it out to be a trilogy (or add the very poor fourth entry many years later)but that's another matter.The two lead kids play the parts well and have a good dynamic between them and Antonio Banderas/Carla Gugino are good support as the parents.Watching it back now though I think it does have some slow parts and the technology looks a bit dated compared to what we're used to today, but Spy Kids 1 still remains a quality film for all the family.

I watched the first one finally, and have to say that despite the cheesy story plot at times, it wasn't that bad. Some kids find out they are spies and end up having to save their parents from some evil dude. The technology and gadgets are very impressive and funny. I liked the age the kids were, not too old (teenager) but not too young to not be, I guess, easy to relate too.I did find the conclusion a bit cheesy and the characters were at times a little over done, but the special effects and everything was done quite well.I rate this 7/10.

Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids is a perfectly rounded, perfectly harmless adventure film; a piece that will no doubt play to an audience consisting of parents of whatever age whom happen to have kids around about similar ages to that of what the kids characters therein are. Feeding off of two separate strands, children will no doubt be consumed in the undying pleasures one equilibrium offers when two infants, one male and one female but brother and sister all the same, bicker and argue with each other as they journey on the adventure of a lifetime; essentially undertaking a quest which will see them strive to save the day and do the grown-ups a favour for a change in bailing them out of the trouble they get themselves in. The scenes and sequences are harmless enough for youngsters to enjoy and brief and charming enough for the adults seeing it with their kids to enjoy; the second strand consisting of the grown ups ambling along with parental life and cracking tired "Oh, aren't we both getting old!" gags which will no doubt induce grins onto that of the faces of thirty-something mums-and-dads watching on with an arm around each other and one of their two tots on either side of them.The problem being, and if like me, you land somewhere in the middle of all of this demographic pandering as a non-child whom isn't a parent and doesn't have any kids, chances are Spy Kids will be a bit of a chore; a film whose success rate in this case relies on it being an interesting and engaging enough adventure piece, something it isn't necessarily and thus doesn't quite pull through; a piece bordering on that of a monumental drag as it shuffles along doing its best to encompass people from better films that you've probably seen – by the end, I was having more fun mentally ticking off those whom had before worked with the aforementioned Rodriguez and were present here than I did from the film itself. For the Folks: if your kids answer you correctly after having turned to them post-credits in order to offer them a pop-quiz on what the only other film George Clooney and Robert Rodriguez had previously worked together on, chances are you're a pretty irresponsible parent.Joking aside, the film does offer up a meek if somewhat interesting study on how to utilise teamwork and one's skills for that of good, honest and upstanding means yadda,yadda, yadda; the film effectively a tale about two nippers seemingly at war with each other coming together to foil a common enemy through hard work, dedication and working together explored in a manner which is a bit better than dull but not really as good as 'slightly interesting' - although it is done so in a rapid, punchy manner tots will enjoy. Where the kids have what is for them, everybody else will observe the ridiculously photogenic parents of the two titular Spy Kids in Antonio Banderas' Gregorio and Carla Gugino's Ingrid Cortez, respectively; two people living a seemingly normal life (whatever 'normal' constitutes in this film) in an isolated cliff-top villa hiding out as retired spies now trying to function as office workers and keeping their previous incarnations private from their offspring.Those kids are Carmen (Vega) and the younger Juni (Sabara), two more often than not at each others' throats in that innocent enough way brothers and sisters this age usually are; Juni's existence somewhat lowlier than Carmen's in that he appears weak and is easily victimised, sports warts on his hands and is disenchanted with school life. His escape from this life is that of the transporting of himself into that of the world of television; specifically, a show headed up by Alan Cumming's suitably nasty and suitably sadistic, but wholly within the boundaries of the film, Fegan Floop; a man with a colourful and joyous TV show featuring all manner of wacky characters; sets and ideas.These circles of characters will come to integrate with one another much more later on; Floop's surface existence masking something more underneath running parallel, when he's later revealed as essentially that of an arms-dealer, with that of Carmen and Juni's parents whom additionally subscribe to a cloaked living that is similar only in nature. The catalyst which kick-starts the titular kids' adventure out into the unknown; a journey encompassing the learning to co-exist with one another; the realisation of what it means to take on certain responsibilities and Juni's own realisation of the true meaning of Floop's show, which he holds so dear to him, occurs when parents Gergorio and Ingrid are swiped by an unknown quantity. From here, surprises and revelations whisk the pair off on an espionage and action imbued adventure featuring bad guys; double crosses; sordid plots and a lot of humour revolving around fully grown adults falling down. Where it's easy to sneer, and boy is it easy to sneer at Spy Kids, it is on the other hand difficult to get as excited about as one would have liked; Rodriguez demonstrating a knack for completely shifting gears and coming up with a piece acceptable to all ages which isn't exceptional but is a long way from woeful.Who knows? Like somebody whose introduction to Brian de Palma was in the shape of 1996's Mission: Impossible as however young I was; maybe, in years to come, youngsters whom saw this with their folks and have such happy memories of it will discover what else Rodriguez has to offer, before quietly exclaiming that they find it hard to believe such a film here was even made by the man – let alone was their introduction to his back-catalogue of which they've come to really admire. The world works in strange ways.