Agent Cody Banks

Rating

Director

Harald Zwart

Screenplay

Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski, Jeffrey Jurgensen

Length

102 min.

Starring

Frankie Muniz, Hilary Duff, Angie Harmon, Keith David, Cynthia Stevenson, Arnold Vosloo, Ian McShane, Daniel Roebuck, Darrell Hammond

MPAA Rating

PG (For action violence, mild language and some sensual content)

Review

With Spy Kids , the film industry discovered a lucrative market: children’s films with a James Bond edge. Agent Cody Banks takes the genre to a different level with an inexperienced and awkward teenager.

Frankie Muniz stars as high school student Cody Banks, a teen whose summer camp was a training event for underage CIA agents. Cody is called up to serve his country by eliciting an invitation to a young girl’s birthday party. Natalie Connors (Hilary Duff) is the daughter of a biophysicist who has developed an electronic organism that will consume organic matter. The scientist hopes to use the entities to clean up disastrous oil spills, but a terrorist wants to use them against the United States military who may oppose his plans for global domination.

When the scientist is strong-armed into developing the creatures for the terrorist, the CIA goes into action. Banks, due to his age, is assigned a handler, Ronica Miles (Angie Harmon). Cody’s first encounter with Natalie after being accepted into her prep school and being assigned to all of her classes is embarrassing for the youngster and the Agency operatives assigned to keep track of him. After a rigorous course in female relationships, Cody isn’t any better at wooing Natalie. After many mishaps, Cody finally gets the invitation and there he goes into spy mode and uncovers the terrorists full plot.

Muniz, whose role on Malcolm in the Middle is nearly identical to Cody Banks, makes no improvement on his television character. The character still bears Malcolm’s traits, but mixes in a love interest that the TV show hasn’t delved heavily into. Harmon does her best to avoid laughing while delivering her often-ludicrous lines, but does her very best with a role that isn’t dimensionally deep.

Screenwriters Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski and Jeffrey Jurgensen bring a unique perspective to the James Bond spy genre. In Agent Cody Banks , Zwart gives us the requisite mission briefing, gadget assignment and thrills that espionage films in the Ian Fleming vein, but adds a new element to the genre. Banks has the physical capabilities to kick butt, but doesn’t have the social graces generally required for secret agents. Here, he has problems confronting girls, he doesn’t relate well with his younger brother and other unique elements that would be expected when dealing with juveniles.

Agent Cody Banks is an enjoyable film that suffers from predictability and uninspired performances. Younger audiences are sure to enjoy this dumbed-down spy adventure while older audiences will feel obliged to watch it with their children in hopes of getting a better spy movie than the recent Die Another Day but will find themselves sorely disappointed.

Review Written

May 7, 2003