Spymate

Stop abusing intelligent animals to make horrible movies! Its absolutely pathetic that with technology today that a chimpanzee should be dressed up and paraded around to make yet another awful children's movie! Slow clap for the geniuses that made a few bucks on the behalf of a 'talented chimpanzee' we can really tell he/she loves to act just like a person...pathetic! Im not sure about other parents but this is not the false reality I want my children idealizing. The sad thing is that movies like these are watched without any acknowledgment that a living animal is manipulated and made to act like a human! Its so obviously wrong and yet these types of movies are still being made, how backwards is this?? My suggestion stop watching bad movies with no creativity and only a dressed up chimp to go on and just maybe these low grade films will die out!

Mike (Chris Potter) is in the spy business, even though he has a young daughter, Amelia (Emma Roberts). After a near disaster however in the Middle East, where he is rescued by his darling, sidekick chimp, Mike gives up his profession. Instead, he and his staff run a small circus, with the small ape as the star. However, can you keep a good spy down? Let's see. Amelia is very smart and she is recruited by a conniving, thieving scientist to work on a project with some glitches. Dad, not realizing anything is amiss, is glad to part with her for a day or so. But, its soon obvious that Amelia has been kidnapped and Mike has to gather the gang and so forth from the Caribbean to Japan to search out his daughter. Will he be successful? This is a fun family flick, with a nice cast and great scenery. Roberts, in one of her first big roles, is adorable, as is her dad and the precocious chimp. Yes, the story loses a bit of dazzle as it goes along but Pat Morita arrives to help keep the movie going. All in all, the flick is a very fine choice for a family night at the movies.

Nothing about this movie is particularly good. The story, the acting, the characters are all terrible. Don't expect any clever plot developments, original one-liners or anything extraordinary. Then you'll be okay.

I mean, it's a movie about a monkey(alright fine, it's a chimp for all you zoologists, for the rest of us it's a monkey) who happens to be a spy. What did you expect? Oscar-worthy content? But that doesn't mean you can't have fun watching it. Just watch this with your friends and family and I'll guarantee you'll have plenty of laughs.

There's lots of action, absurd spy gadgets, a monkey, circus performers, silly comedy, light drama and a happy ending(this doesn't count as a spoiler does it?). What's not to love?

Going into this movie, I realized even before it started that I am not the audience for this kind of movie. I am an adult, and this movie was made for kids. While watching it, I did see why kids aged 8 or under might like it. The 10 year old girl is portrayed as being intelligent, there is plenty of slapstick, and what the chimpanzee is portrayed as doing will interest kids.

So kids might like this movie. What will adults think? Well, I will admit that a few things impressed me about the movie. The production values, including filming in several countries, make the movie look slicker and more expensive than typical direct-to-video kiddie flicks. And adults will be impressed by what the chimpanzee trainers were able to do with the chimpanzee. But despite things like these, I found the movie heavy going. It's very simple-minded at times, almost insulting to the intelligence. The movie also portrays some foreign people in a somewhat uncomfortable way that's close to being racist. If parents rent this movie for their kids, I recommend that they exit the living room while their kids watch the movie.

I watched this movie and while it could have been better, it could have been a LOT worse. The actors are not bad at all and the movie is quite well done; there are several rib-tickling moments and there's not a lot of gratuitous violence. It's not the greatest movie in the world but well worth watching.