Agent
Cody Banks: Saving the World andGetting the Girl Before Bedtime
Agent
Cody Banks: Saving the World andI wrote in my reviews of both Spy Kids movies that those were the kind
of flicks I wish had been released when I was a 10-year-old boy. Well, the new
Agent Cody Banks skews a bit older. This is the movie I wish had been
made when I was 12 years old! And what a cool, little surprise it is, full of
high-tech action, low-tech intrigue, kiddie romance, and sharp humor. And, hey,
since it's been a couple of years since the first Spy Kids hit theaters,
the film is the next step up in children's spy adventures.
Frankie Muniz of Malcolm in the Middle stars as the title character,
a Seattle teenager who was recruited and trained by the CIA as part of a covert
summer camp project that only the kids and the federal government know about.
So, while Mom and Dad thought Cody was learning how to canoe, build campfires,
and play soccer, he was really being trained to use sophisticated gadgetry,
survey enemy installations, and ward off bad guys with martial arts.
Cody is called upon by a gorgeous operative named Ronica Miles (Angie Harmon)
to enroll in a top-notch private school and start dating the daughter (Hilary
Duff) of a scientist (Martin Henderson) working on a top-secret weapon
for a megalomaniac (Ian McShane, who looks like he has spent one too
many weekends at George Hamilton's Tanning Camp for Baby Boomers). There's just
one problem. The CIA never taught Cody how to talk to girls! He's a complete
disaster whenever one is even close to him. He sounds like me after one too
many evenings playing "Nick at Nite" drinking games. "I ... uh
... yeah, uh ... mmmm ... GAG!"
Those youngsters who still find boy-girl relationships "icky" (Hey,
don't feel bad. I finally moved out of this phase back in '98), they'll likely
squirm during the bubble-gum romantic moments between Muniz and Duff. I saw
this movie with my friends Jim, Kathy, and their two young boys, and their kids'
faces couldn't have been wedged any deeper into the theater seat cushions when
the two puppy lovers were sharing an ice cream at a local diner or watching
a sunset over the Puget Sound.
Fortunately, something loud, thrilling, funny, or just plain neat-o-keen happens
in Agent Cody Banks every two minutes or so. Director Harald Zwart
and longtime Barry Sonnenfeld editor Jim Miller keep the movie moving
at a brisk, fun pace, and the performances are uniformly good. While I thought
more could have been done with Cody's shyness around the chicks, Muniz is such
a smart and charming kid actor that I didn't mind when he and Duff started clicking.
It also helps greatly that such veteran supporting actors as Keith David
as the irascible CIA director and Daniel Roebuck and Cynthia Stevenson
as Cody's clueless dad and mom shed whatever "Serious Actor" hang-ups
they may have had entering the project and get into the spirit of the story.
And while I'm sure it will have a tough time pulling in non-parental types,
the movie has a lot going for it that adults will find fun, too. Harmon ups
the guy factor with a wardrobe of skin-tight, leather jump-suits that will make
you hate whatever team her football player-husband Jason Sehorn ends up playing
for next year (good move by the Giants cutting him, by the way). Saturday
Night Live funnyman Darrell Hammond, meanwhile, deadpans his way
through Cody's Q counterpart, the guy who outfits the CIA spies with everything
from X-ray sunglasses to jet-powered skateboards. And Arnold Vosloo of
The Mummy films is on hand to provide muscle for the main villain and
a recurring nemesis for Cody. The guy looks like Billy Zane on steroids, and
he sports perhaps the worst mohawk since John Riggins when he played for the
Jets (Ugh! Second football reference. Sorry!), but he has great fun in the role.
I had great fun watching Agent Cody Banks. I liked it as much as the
two Spy Kids movies, and ... heck ... it tells a better story than any
of the recent Bond flicks. It may be 007 for pre-teens, but here's hoping its
001 at the box office this coming weekend.
Agent Cody Banks is rated PG for action violence, mild language
(one character says "crap"), and some sensual walking by Harmon that
would have had her disbarred on Law & Order. Some may find her a
bit too sexy for a kid's movie. But like I said, if I was 12 years old...
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