|
 |
|
Spy Kids 2
***
Cinema Releases - August 16, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate PG. USA.
98 minutes. Written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. Starring Alexa Vega,
Daryl Sabara, Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Steve Buscemi, Mike Judge,
Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin, Matthew O'Leary, Emily Osment, Ricardo Montalban,
Taylor Momsen.
Robert Rodriguez is having a fun play around with
"Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams". He shot the movie on a
24-frames-per-second digital camera, took care of the post-production work
with equipment set up in his garage, and diligently indulged himself by serving
as writer, producer, director, editor, cinematographer, visual effects supervisor
and composer. Phew. This is what a home movie looks like when you put a
$30million budget behind it.
The visual style is similar to that of the first
"Spy Kids" adventure, which opened in April of last year and was enjoyed
immensely by me. We get the cheesy bright colours of kids' television, hepped
up with the high kinetic energy level that Hollywood special effects allow.
It's fast-moving, overwhelming fun, full of gadgets, creatures and general
whizz-bang. It could have gone disastrously wrong, but I like
it.
Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega are back as the brother
and sister team who inherited secret-agent genes from their parents and launch
into adventures involving all sorts of high tech and genetically altered
stuff. This time round, they have to journey to a hidden island and dodge
mutated fairytale creatures in order to find and keep safe a device that
can freeze time, or control energy, or something.
The contraption itself is less important than
the fact of everyone running around looking for it. Antonio Banderas and
Carla Gugino return as the spy parents, Steve Buscemi is the wimp mad scientist
who accidentally created the inhabitants of the crazy island, Matthew O'Leary
and Emily Osment play the rich, blonde and smug counterparts and rivals to
our Hispanic heroes. The terrifically exciting supporting cast also includes
Ricardo Montalban, Mike Judge, Danny Trejo and Cheech Marin. Children in
the audience will be educated, and adults should be pleased, by Christopher
Macdonald's performance as a puppet President of the United States. This
guy has the looks of Al Gore and the style of George W. Bush: he needs a
teleprompter just to be able to remember his own choices for directorial
appointments.
The island effects are done with ingenuity and
much good humour -- I especially like the flying pigs, and the living skeletons
that put their swords down and silently return to their cobwebbed lair as
soon as they get treated with a little respect. There are cool credit cookies,
which incorporate not only outtakes but a few more minor adventures and even
a Britney Spears satire. And the performances of the two main children are
spunky, with Vega as cool as last time and Sabara seeming much more at ease.
"Spy Kids 2" is an exercise in goofy theatricality, jazzed up by technology
so much that it cannot help but be infectious. We get surprised eyes, kicks
that send villains flying, a ridiculously large balloon suit whose purpose
is to keep its wearer afloat in the sea, and hyperactive laser displays.
It would be rude to ask for much more.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
2002 Reviews
(alphabetical)
2002 Reviews (by star
rating)
Archive of all cinema reviews
(alphabetical)
Review Archive
Index
UK
Critic main page
|
|
![[Image]](http://www.ukcritic.com/posbanr2.gif)