User reviews

Robert Rodriguez is not the first person you'd suggest to make a children's film. As entertaining as 'Desperado', 'The Faculty' and 'From Dusk Till dawn' are, you wouldn't line them up alongside 'Toy Story 2' and 'The Jungle Book' for good, old-fashioned family entertainment. Yet, as this energetic, light-hearted Bondesque spoof proves, Rodriguez has the talent to turn his hand to just about anything, and inject it with the suspense and adrenalin that are his trademark.

From the gloriously OTT opening scene (which tells the story of how two agents sent to kill each other fall in love and settle down) to the last second, 'Spy Kids' doesn't miss a trick. The obligatory gizmos, mad villains and dastardly plot to take over the world are all there, along with a star cast all playing their roles with tongues firmly in cheek. The action/humour mix is extremely well-balanced too, with some hilarious visual gags sitting within a sharp script and Banderas, in particular, revels taking a sly swipe at his normal 'strong yet silent Latino' image. Yet, refreshingly for a children's film, it's never patronising, never obvious, and genuinely original in places (soldiers made of thumbs, secret agents transformed into tellytubby-type TV characters - imagine Goldeneye-meets-Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-meets-Any Tim Burton film and you'll be close). In truth, some of the surreal moments and the more graphic effects may get a little too much for younger kids at times, but these moments are few and far between.

Ok, it's a 'U' certificate and you may well have to sit through the trailer for 'See Spot Run', but don't let that put you off. This is one of the better films you'll see this year, and the best out over Easter by quite a way. Go and have some fun.

8/10

This is a somewhat unusual film; it's a children's film, but it doesn't talk down to its audience. And as an added bonus, it can be watched even if you are over ten. As the far too little-known short Bedhead, Robert Rodriguez has here created a film for children, featuring children... which doesn't treat them with the lack of respect for the smarts and sense of logic that they do already possess. Adults often forget what children are like, and think of them as 'less' than the grownups. Rodriguez gives them(and us) a film that allows them a similar status to adults. The film has stuff that will appeal to kids(spy equipment hidden in children's things) but it isn't offensive to us who aren't. While it is more directed towards those of the preteen persuasion, it doesn't aim so low as to feel stupid for us who aren't of said persuasion. The plot is pretty good, though I guess it's not all that original... and as usual with children's films, the kids are the heroes, which puts too much pressure on them, as a Danish film critic so perfectly put it. The acting is a usual high(as most of the actors are quite talented), no performances really let you down, even the (intentionally)overplayed ones. The characters, many of them fairly clichéd and thin, are all credible. As with many(most) Rodriguez films, pretty much all of those that he's written, himself... there are subplots and such, many of which are either overly easily resolved or not properly addressed. The humor is pretty good, I laughed out loud several points, rather unusual for children's films, and I was never insulted by the humor. None of it tries too hard to garner laughs, either. The special effects are quite impressive, and though it's still evident that it's Rodriguez' mini studio, it will fool you for the very most part. The action is quite intense and exciting, and like the humor, it's got Rodriguez' unique touch. Any fan of Rodriguez(such as myself, which is by far the main reason I watched this very film in the first place) will enjoy this, if maybe not to the same extent as one of his typical films. I recommend this to any fan of Rodriguez or any of the actors, and definitely most kids. Very much worth watching, even if you've outgrown childhood. Indulge your inner kid. 7/10

This film takes a child's cartoonish idea of a spy and runs with it, leaning into a charming campiness that brought joy to my heart. As an adult watching this film, I am impressed by the directing in this film: great performances and expressive, well thought out camera-work. This, combined with excessively creative production design (which clearly had passionate people behind it) creates a world that, frankly, feels like it was genuinely thought up by a children, albeit a team of extremely creative and funny ones with an impressive understanding of filmmaking. I generally judge children's films for how well i can enjoy them, as an adult, since any film that has to pander to a child mind to succeed is lacking an essential intellectual, critically examinable element. This film half succeeds at that, while also clearly and specifically pandering to children. It's like a live-action kid's cartoon, and the director/cinematographer did a great job at achieving that specific aesthetic.

I often struggle when evaluating children's movies, because I am not a child. But the sheer creativity of this film, and how competently made it is in every department-art design, cinematography, directing, writing, score, everything-makes Spy Kids, undeniably, a work of art.

Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez are ex-spies who were at the top of their game until they met, married and decided to retire for their own mutual safety. Years later they have normal lives and have children who know nothing of any of this. When Gregorio learns of former colleagues vanishing, he looks into it, only for him and Ingrid to be captured by the evil Floop, whose children's television puppets are really mutants developed as part of building a private army for Lisp. With their parents gone and the alarm raised, Carmen and Juni learn the truth and are suddenly faced with having to rescue their parents.

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.

"Pequenos espiões" Um jovem clássico com a cara do Robert Rodrigues, mas para o publico juvenil, o despretensioso longa que ganhou o mundo com sua simplicidade e carisma, com um toque trash e infantil "Pequenos espiões" é uma grande sátira, com ótimos personagens, grandes atores e muitas referencias. Com um roteiro simples, e uma boa introdução aos personagens, Robert nos coloca no mundo da OSS e tudo que o cerca e logo depois nos faz embarcar em uma aventura, infantil é verdade, mas ao mesmo tempo macabra, com experimentos humanos, tortura, cárcere privado, escravidão, mensagens subliminares....Algumas crianças podem se assustar, mas tudo isso tem uma pegada bem leve e de segundo plano, depois vem uma boa aventura juvenil com toques de ação, comedia e suspense. Antônio Bandeiras está ótimo no filme, Alexa e Daryl fazem uma ótima dupla, passam um ar de irmandade verdadeira. O filme conta com um estilo de direção bem Robert Rodrigues, exagerado mas divertido, pesado e leve, muitos o odeiam, mas eu adoro seus filmes e o ar de amadorismo perverso e sarcástico que eles passam, além de diversas referencias ao cinema e ao próprio mundo cinematográfico de Robert Rodrigues. "Pequenos espiões" tem seu valor cinematográfico, além de divertir uma geração de adultos e crianças, com sua simplicidade e carisma.

"Spy Kids" was a big kids hit! I thought it was pretty cool that there are these two kids Carmen and Juni Cortez who have to save their parents from danger. But I think it could have been better. I didn't really like how they showed how Carmen and Juni's parents got married because seriously, lets get on with the movie!!! But I LOVED the cast. Alexa Vega, i thought was the best one in the cast! She is a great teenage actress and should go really far in the Hollywood movie making business. Daryl Sabara was so cute playing Juni and should go far as well. There was Also Antonio Banderas, and it was an okay movie, not the best, but i expected better.

Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) and Ingrid Cortez (Carla Gugino) are the greatest spies who retire to be simple consultants once they started a family. Their children Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara) think their parents are boring. Gregorio is annoyed by the children's TV show "Floop's Fooglies" and investigates its host Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming). He turns out to be a villain evil inventor. His latest evil invention with Alexander Minion (Tony Shalhoub) are kid robots. However the robots have no brains and Floop is after the Third Brain. He's been kidnapping OSS agents and captures the Cortezes. Felix Gumm (Cheech Marin) reveals himself not to be the kids' uncle. He tells them the truth and sends them to the safe house. OSS agent Ms. Gradenko (Teri Hatcher) arrives but she turns out to be a double agent. The robots take the Third Brain and the kids seek out Machete (Danny Trejo) for help who turns out to be their father's older brother.

Director Robert Rodriguez has infused this kids' movie with wacky visuals and crazy gadgets. It's all outlandish fun. The adult actors are all top shelf with many Rodriguez alumni. The trick of this movie are the kids. They're likable enough. Their characters are combative siblings but Rodriguez makes sure that they show their love for each other every once in awhile.

Wow, this is a really bad movie! O.k., it's supposed to be a movie for kids, but is this a reason for a bad story development (this kind of story definitely had the potential to produce a good movie) and a huge mass of logical errors? I think not. And so did many kids that saw the movie, as I noticed afterwards. There are lots of good movies for children, but this one is definitely not one of them. We all know Rodriguez can do it better, at least in the "grown-ups-section". Maybe he should just keep his hands off of movies for children. Anyway, keep your hands off of this movie. You will regret if you don't.

Rating: 1 of 10, realistically seen still too high.

'Spy Kids' uses hi-tech means and a busy action adventure to offer an old-fashioned, conservative, pro-family message. it goes beyond the usual 'family is a sacred and inviolable unit' platitude, and suggests that families have to be worked at, that it's a daily, often violent, even traumatic struggle where nothing can be taken for granted, where enemies and chaos intrude at every corner.

Rodriguez seems to parody this message with a sub-plot about a docile army of 'Village of the Damned' robot kids who do the bidding of their master, appropriately a children's TV host, whether for good or evil. But the essential message doesn't seem to be parodied - the narrative concerns all those favourites in the pro-family genre: the father who has to prove himself worthy of his kids; the kids who have to come out of their shells; the realisation that lies and assumed roles are probably not very healthy in a family context; children should follow in the footsteps of their parents, asserting tradition; children's TV is not a good substitute for family contact and communication.

From the beginning, the spy antics are conceived as an allegory for family values - the parents' marriage is conceived and disrupted by their careers in espionage; the main narrative concerns the kids' attempts to rescue their parents and restore the home; the denouement is the scene for a family reunion. There is even a juvenile Oedipal story, where the son manages to surpass a father he was always embarrassed by.

There's nothing inherently wrong with this. Rodriguez wrote, directed and produced the film, so we may assume it's a theme close to his heart. For all its CGI modernity, the film's movement actually resembles those old live action Disney films about kids-in-peril (e.g. 'In search of castaways'), crossed with the old-fashioned, fetishised gadgetry and outre sets of Supermarionation; spliced, of course, with the more late-20th century likes of 'Star Wars', 'The Matrix', 'Mission Impossible 2' etc., and, hearteningly, the queasy colour schemes and various plot points from 'The City of Lost Children', which might be this film's dark double.

As in 'The Matrix', there are some pop-metaphysical pretensions, such as the scene where our heroes fight their evil doppelgangers, but this is part of the conservative message: the rupture of the family unit entails a breakdown in identity (see also the transformation of dad into a grotesque puppet thing).

In any event, we are free to ignore the message, and enjoy the film's surface (certainly, Rodriguez could argue that his message is explicitely framed as a fantasy, a bedtime story, unrealisable in the real world; that would make the tone sarcastic and in bad faith). This is underwhelming.

Too often the bold flourishes betray their CGI joins, and become the digital equivalent of those back projections in Hitchcock movies. Rodriguez admirably wants to create a world of pure 60s bubblegum artifice, but the fact of 'real' actors force logistical compromises that aren't always pretty.

This leaves the story. The script and characters are too thin, and the action too abrupt, for us to engage in their trauma. Like the usual Rodriguez film, the narrative is pretty much non-stop action, but because this is a kid's movie, the sanitised, cartoon action prohibits the usual Rodriguez tension between the ugliness of the violence and the beauty of its choreography. The sets are strange, colourful, but somehow lack inventive vividness. A Tim Burton would have accessed the story's dark centre; Rodriguez, however, provides an interesting subtext about the lingering racism suffered by the Hispanic children at their WASP school as the basis for their unhappiness.

Yeah I get the CGI is pretty dated and it's very silly, but look at the movie as it is. People on imdb have a bad habit of giving movies they think are overrated 1s, or movies they think are underrated 10s. This movie is an example of the former.

The kid actors are good, as well as the adults. Danny Trejo is a standout for me. Antonio banderas was great as well.

The villain, Floop, may be silly but you understand his character, which is something MANY spy movies fail at.

Jokes do fall flat, but some do land and are pretty good. The plot is simple and silly and does makes no sense at times, but it's a kid movie: I don't know why some reviewers were expecting an in-depth socio-political commentary on the government and spies. And in my opinion, the plot is entertaining and that's what matters.

I suppose that what movies should be aiming for: entertainment. Obviously a good movie needs good plot; score; direction; writing; cinematography and acting (all of which this movie has), but what makes me actually care about the movie is the question of 'if I enjoyed the movie'

And I enjoyed the movie, a lot

This film like the other two were a big part of my childhood so revisiting them for me is quite the nostalgia trip.

While compared to today's films this is extremely corny, old, and dated but nonetheless it's a fun film if you can turn your brain off to certain cringe worthy moments. Also the nostalgia definitely helps keep the score up a bit.

IMDb: 7/10 Letterboxd: 3/5

Watched on HBO Max.

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 took my two boys (7 and 10) to see Spy kids today. They were transfixed and wanted to watch it again straightaway. Both are big James Bond fans but some of the content and dialogue of the Bond movies isn't suitable. Spy Kids fits the bill exactly for anyone under 13 who likes the Bond films. It came over to me as a blend of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets Home Alone meets Bond. It was at the kids level without patronizing them and was believable enough for adults to enjoy too. All of the acting was high quality and the special effects first class.

I shall enjoy it again in the future on video but it deserves to be seen on the big screen first. Another bonus were the trailers for Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. I often come away from Cinema trips with the kids feeling that we haven't really had our moneys worth, but not today!

Juni and Carmen Cortez are kids whose parents have one secret: they are spies working for the O.S.S. However, the two adults are forced out of retirement after fellow spies are reported to have disappeared, with the father, Gregorio, thinking the spies are mutated into the character of Juni's favorite show, Floop's Fooglies. However, when the two end up getting captured themselves, it's up to Juni and Carmen, who learn of their past from Felix, a man posing as their uncle, to save them, if they can stop arguing with each other to work together.

This is a great family film. The action is well choreographed, the actors all do a good job, and the story is nice. But the real good thing here is the special effects. The only problem is Carmen and Juni's bickering can be a bit annoying.

"Spy Kids" is a Robert Rodriguez-directed film about two kids who find out that their parents are international spies, and that they've been kidnapped, so now they have to save them by using their parents' technology and spy-gear.

This isn't too bad, actually. It's certainly a departure for Robert Rodriguez, a man known for the "El Mariachi" trilogy, "From Dusk Till Dawn" and "The Faculty." It's certainly not his greatest effort, but it's still good nonetheless, and it's certainly better than some family movies that I've seen. It actually had some stub - spome spaplala - "substance." (Thank you for reading me this far, I was saying it just like that while I was writing.) So, all in all, I recommend it, it's a great movie to watch with the whole family. And, it's a good way to introduce your kids to Robert Rodriguez, whom they might really get to know with "El Mariachi," "From Dusk Till Dawn," and "Sin City."

Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids has a very special significance for me: it's the first movie I ever saw in theatres, and therefore left quite an impression on me. It has loads of Rodriguez's trademark imagination and vision, as well as a stacked cast and a whimsical sense of adventure that makes it a super charged Saturday morning cartoon style bucket of fun. Rodriguez makes two types of films: shamelessly violent, over the top, bloody genre fun, and family orientated sci fi/fantasy for kids. He fares better in the former, as this is really the only good one in the secondary category. The sequels are trash, and I don't know what he was thinking with Sharkboy and Lava Girl, but with this one his filmmaking skill and passion for the craft work its charm and provide a wonderful experience. Newcomers Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara play youngsters Carmen and Juni Cortez, who are surprised to learn that their unassuming parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) are in fact lethal undercover spies, and need their help after being kidnapped by eccentric megalomaniac Floop (Alan Cumming hamming it up terrifically). Aided by their uncles Felix (Cheech Marin) and Machete (Danny Trejo) they embark on a dazzling adventure to find Floop's surreal, isolated palace, take down baddies Ms. Gredanko (Teri Hatcher) and Mr. Lisp (Robert Patrick) and save their parents. The four have amazing chemistry as a familial unit, especially when it comes time to kick major butt. The practical based effects have a wondrous vitality, from the Thumb Thumb henchman to the eye boggling, Terry Gilliam-esque realm that Floop resides in. There's also work from Tony Shaloub, Mike Judge, Richard Linklater and a sly cameo from George Clooney. No shortage of imagination, creativity and fun.

Robert Rodriguez's Spiy Kids is a goofy spy film, that truly will appeal to youngsters. I greq up watching theaw movies and re-watching it after all theae years, the effects haven't aged well at all, but the charm and soundtrack still have that charm to it.

Spy kids was very odd. I mean I like wierd and funny odd movies, but this was just to much. It was so wierd it became stupid. One reason was that is had WAY to many gadgets. Yes, I know it was in the future but they have to draw the line somewhere. One other thing is that the bad guys were just so..... so .... I dont know I cant find the right word for how dumb they were. I thought of it as little kids movies and what Ive heard about the 3rd one is that it is even more horrible than the first. And I still dont see how people voted a 7 for it. I recommend not even wasting your money on this.

-famo14

One of the few pieces of media that has a realistic relationship between siblings, HISPANIC siblings I might add. Seeing a latina older sister save her parents and the world was the representation my young self needed. Every girl deserves to be represented by someone like Carmen Cortez.

Also, Gregorio and Ingrid are the original enemies to lovers and powercouple, change my mind.