‘Spy kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams’ combines espionage with family fun
Father and mother really do know best in “Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams,” a fun-to-watch family film that combines espionage adventures with feel-good moments. Writer-director Robert Rodriguez surprised everyone with the 2001 original, which grossed $168 million worldwide before becoming a sensation in video stores. The Texas filmmaker obviously recognized that parents with young children want to share time together at the movies and that the entertainment on screen needn’t be limited to animated fare.
His formula is simply to put some family members in tense situations and then let the others save them. That approach worked in the original as children Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara) Cortez embarked on a rescue mission after discovering that their beloved parents, Gregorio and Ingrid (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino), secretly worked as spies and faced lift-threatening trouble on a mission.
With the sequel, Rodriguez reverses the situation as Carmen and Juni Cortez are now official spies and must travel to an island where a genetic scientist (Steve Buscemi of “Ghost World”) has created bizarre creatures that seem out of control. Competing against Carmen and Juni in the mission are two fellow spy kids, Gary (Matt O’Leary) and Gerti (Emily Osment, the sister of Haley Joel Osment), who hope to complete the assignment first and receive promotions.
When Carmen and Juni get in over their heads, their parents fly to the rescue and are aided by the still-operative spy grandparents (Ricardo Montalban and Holland Taylor) of the children.
Rodriguez pokes some fun at Banderas’ character by having him verbally jousting with his disapproving mother-in-law (nicely played by Taylor of TV’s “The Practice”). But all such bickering washes away once the children need to be saved, and it’s clear that nothing on earth will stop the parents and grandparents from bringing the youngsters home.
With “Spy Kids 2,” Rodriguez, who shot the project on digital video, manages to nicely work in a message about family values without preaching to adults or depriving youngsters of having fun, an approach even “The Osbournes” might applaud.
Postscript: Fans of vintage fantasy fare will be interested in a skeleton-fight sequence. It’s a tribute by Rodriguez to the stop-motion animation work by veteran special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen in the 1963 favorite “Jason and the Argonauts.”
“Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams”
Grade: B
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Ricardo Montalban, Holland Taylor and Steve Buscemi; produced by Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellan; written and directed by Robert Rodriguez.
Running Time: 100 minutes.
Parental Guide: PG rating (actions scenes, brief crude humor).
Web site: www.spykids.com