Spy Kids

Halfway

Spy Kids is halfway to being a family classic with as much amusement for the adults as for the kids. The gentle jabs at spy movies and their crazy technologies are nice, and there are elements to Floop's castle that show a vivid imagination. The kids are also smart characters, and I enjoyed watching them puzzle through increasingly-outrageous scenarios. Heck, this is even a movie with good parents, not requiring any of Spielberg's absent father elements. Unfortunately, the message content of the film, like Juni overcoming his self-doubt, is delivered a bit too ham- fistedly. The ending was especially saccharine-rich, and didn't match the sly cleverness of the beginning. For better or for worse, Spy Kids occasionally relies too much on movie physics, where the laws of the universe take a backseat to what works for the narrative. That kind of thing always irks me. On the bright side, the acting is pretty good and the content is certainly kid-safe. Best of all, at eighty-eight minutes the movie doesn't have time to overstay its welcome.