by Frank Wilkins
One thing is clearly evident from the trailer, and the actual movie itself only reinforces the evidence that Agent Cody Banks is nothing more than a hastily constructed attempt to cash-in on the recent monetary success of the Spy Kids movies. But where the first installment of the Spy Kids series succeeded in touching our hearts with a genuinely sincere moral, Agent Cody Banks never aspires to be more than a piece of commercial hogwash.
Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz) is the typical awkward teenager - He is teased by his peers, has a pesky little brother, and he becomes tongue-tied when talking to girls. But unlike most teenagers, Cody has a big secret. While at summer camp, he trained to be a junior CIA operative. His first mission calls for him to become close to Natalie Connors (Hilary Duff). She can help lead the CIA to her scientist father, Dr. Connors (Martin Donovan), who has invented "nanobots", tiny little microscopic robots that can be programmed to digest oil from giant oil spills. But imagine this…these nanobots can also be used for wildly clandestine evil! Some of the movie's only humorous and original moments come from the interaction of Cody and Natalie. He stumbles and stammers over his words, drawing the reaction "are you in special-ed?" from the snobby Natalie. While not treated to much screen time, Duff doesn't seem interested in being much more than the tarty love interest as she runs around in bare-midriff tank tops with a smirky smile on her face.
We are also introduced to Banks' "handler" Ronica Miles (Angie Harmon) whose only real purpose seems to be to entertain the dads who accompanied their children to the movie. Most of her generous screen time shows her in skin-tight leather cat suits with strategically unclasped buttons. There are some inappropriate moments of interaction between Ronica and Cody, especially during a gratuitous kickboxing bout where we see Cody end up with his nose in her cleavage more than once. One scene was particularly improper as she walks into the boys' locker room while they are wrapped in towels and standing in underwear. She gives us the typical towel popping that we've come to know in nearly every movie with a locker room scene, but these are fifteen and sixteen year old boys!
As Cody finally garners the attention of Natalie, he is invited to her birthday party where the CIA has learned that the bad guys have staged the transfer of the "nanobot" technology from Dr. Connors to his evil financiers, Molay and Brinkman, who will use the nanobots for world destruction. I'm not sure why they chose to perform this transfer at a birthday party other than to help the plot make sense. While this premise uses the same formula that has been successful in almost every James Bond movie to date, director Howard Zwart and his legion of screenwriters fail to present anything innovative and are clearly not interested in flawless execution.
I don't spoil anything by revealing that, in the end, Cody gets the girl and the world is saved from evil doom. The action is never believable enough to make you feel real danger and the script is not deep enough to allow you to connect with the characters. But I think I will spare you all from perilous agony if I tell you that Agent Cody Banks is nothing more than one of those highly commercialized PG-rated movies that looks to entertain a wide audience, yet never achieves enough identity to delight anyone older than 12 and younger than 7.
Frank Wilkins
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Agent Cody Banks (2003)
