Post by StevePulaski on Aug 11, 2011 21:39:46 GMT -5
The family in Spy Kids.
Rating: ★★★
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.