Spy Kids

Spy Kids

In 2001, Spy Kids was a complete and utter surprise to me. Writer-director Robert Rodriguez was known for his action movies and I was befuddled that the maker of Desperado was tackling a kid's movie. But he didn't just tackle it, he knocked it out of the park.

Kids live action films are often terrible. I know I am not the audience for them, but what happened to movies that the whole family could enjoy, including the parents? (Pixar has had the formula down from the very beginning; why weren't other studios taking notes?!?)

Maybe it just takes an outsider, like an action director, to get the job done right. Spy Kids is about two former spies Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) who go off on one more mission and get themselves kidnapped by an evil kid's television show producer and weapons dealer Flooj (Alan Cummings). Now it is up the Cortez' children, Juni and Carmen, to save the day and to do that, they must become Spy Kids! Complete with snazzy gadgets that would make James Bond jealous, they avoid the bad guys and slowly work their way to Flooj's castle. Along the way, we all learn about the importance of family (well, there has to be some sort of moral).

Sound goofy? It sure is, but Spy Kids shows that goofiness does not mean stupid. This is a smart and clever movie, inventive in its jokes and action set pieces. The acting is terrific - especially Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara as Carmen and Juni. Where the hell did they find these kids?! They not only handle the action and dialogue convincingly, they also have a wicked sense of comic timing I would not have expected from actors that young. And unlike most movies about siblings, these two actually act like they're related - where you can go from arguing to playing to arguing to hitting to playing, all in the span of 30 seconds.

I was worried that the effectiveness of Spy Kids would be diminished by the increasingly over-the-top sequels. But luckily, this movie is just as clever as it was when I first watched it 10 years ago. I don't know what its place in movie history is going to be, but I certainly hope it lifts into the pantheon of children's classics. Its deserves it.

MVP: Clearly it was a casting coup to get Darryl Sabara and Alexa Vega. But I think I am going to have to give it to Alexa Vegas as Carmen, just because I think she had a harder role. Carmen is the annoying older sister, always forced to take care of an annoying brother she doesn't like very much. Her story arc into a family loving spy is terrific, particularly when she gets to share the scenes arguing with her grumpy uncle, Machete (Danny Trejo).

TRIVIA: The evil Thumb-Thumbs are based on drawings Robert Rodriguez did as a little kid.

BEST LINE: Gregorio: "He's emotional...uh, he's Latino."

Shrek Forever After

Shrek Forever After

Sometimes a sequel in a long-standing franchise is like the return of an old friend. But sometimes a sequel is like that friend who wears out his welcome and just kind of sticks around when everyone else has gone home and you just want to go to sleep. The third film in the Shrek franchise, Shrek the Third, was definitely that friend, and I definitely was not looking forward to the fourth movie. What if you fall asleep and you wake up and the friend is still there???? That is what I thought Shrek Forever After would be.

And yet, as the movie went on, something peculiar happened - I found myself laughing. There is nothing particularly original about Shrek Ever After. We've seen many of the jokes before, but they are well executed and made me smile.

The plot isn't even particularly original - it is basically an adaptation of It's a Wonderful Life. But that might be the film's strength. The franchise had written itself into a corner. It had ceased being a ironic take on Disney's consumerism, and had actually become a consumer empire in of itself. It had degraded from twisting the fairy tales of our youth to a ninety-minute pop culture reference full of other pop culture references. But by showing us a world where Shrek doesn't exist, the filmmakers are able at least temporarily hit the reset button. It is amusing to see what happened to all the famous characters of the past films. If Shrek had never walked out of his swamp, what would Donkey, Puss in Boots, and Ginger Bread Man (my favorite) be up to?

If the movie is not as clever as the first Shrek or have as many belly laughs as the second, at least it is never grating like the third. Overall, it's okay. Certainly nothing you need to rush out and see, but at least the movie rights the ship and gives the franchise a proper farewell. In the end, maybe Shrek Forever After is that friend that stays too long, but at least makes a good joke before he leaves. If the joke is good enough, sometimes that can make the whole ordeal worth it.

MVP: Once again, Antonio Banderas puts his castmates to shame and steals every scene he is in as Puss in Boots. As I am sure you saw from the commercials, in this alternate reality Puss has retired and has gotten enormously fat. This provides fodder for some of the best lines and sight gags in the film (like when Puss is too fat to clean himself). It also gives us our best line of the movie.

BEST LINE: Puss in Boots: "Feed me...if you dare!!!"

TRIVIA:
As the Head of Story at Dreamworks Animation, Walt Dohrn would perform all the character voices during storyboard meetings.  It seems that no one could do a Rumpelstiltskin anywhere near as entertaining as he could, so he was cast in the part!