Agent Cody Banks

Movie Title: Agent Cody Banks
Official Website (it might still work): Agent Cody Banks
Rating (out of 10): 6
Reviewed By: Michael Stevens
Buy the: Video/DVD \| Soundtrack
The Review:

Did you ever wonder what James Bond was like when he was a teenager? No, well me neither, but someone did and then pitched that idea to MGM Studios, the owners of the James Bond movies (which there are now a total of 20 films after Die Another Day). However, there are big differences between Bond, James Bond and Mr. Cody Banks is that this film is geared towards a younger audience, the kid is an American, and hence he works for the CIA and not MI6.

In the beginning we discover that young Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz, Deuces Wild) is part of a special CIA recruitment program that secretly assembles talented teenagers and puts them through a secret summer camp. This summer camp seems normal enough to the parents, so they never suspect a thing, but these kids are taught the fine arts of espionage and combat at the camp before being returned to their normal lives. When needed, these agents are called up to active duty for specific missions that require a younger agent. In the case of Cody Banks, he is called up to get close to the attractive Natalie Connors (Hilary Duff, Human Nature), the only daughter of the eccentric, but brilliant, Dr. Connors (Martin Donovan, Insomnia). You see Dr. Connors is the foremost expert on nanobot technology and has been hired by the evil E.R.I.S. organization to further refine his little gadgets. Of course he does not know they are evil and he does just what they want him to do. The head of this group (which is a lot like KAOS from the Get Smart TV series) is the evil looking Brinkman (Ian McShane) who has a right-hand-man in the form of the even more evil looking Molay (Arnold Vosloo, The Mummy Returns). ERIS’s plans are to attack the US’s strategic missile arsenal using the nanobots, leaving the missiles harmless and the US open for an attack by the Russians. Banks’ mission is to get close to Natalie so that he will be invited to her birthday party where he can then find out what ERIS is up to and hopefully stop them. Assisting Cody is his sexy handler Ronica Miles (Angie Harmon), who Cody is hot for, but she treats him more like a son. Either way, she wears some great outfits to look at if you know what I mean. Unfortunately for the CIA, Cody is not much of a ladies man, and struggles mightily just to get an invitation, despite massive amounts of help from the CIA, like doing his homework and chores, transferring him to her school and getting him into all of her classes, and giving him a lot of cash. Eventually he gets the invite, but can he save the world and still get the girl? James always does (that bastard, he killed Kenny).

A few other folks in Agent Cody Banks are Keith David (Barbershop), Cynthia Stevenson, Daniel Roebuck, Michael Cromien, Andrew Francis, Peter New, and SNL graduate Darrell Hammond as the hilarious Q type secret agent gadget maker. The directing credit goes to Harald Zwart while writing credits go to Ashley Edward Miller, Scott Alexander, Zack Stentz, and Larry Karaszewski.

First and foremost, Agent Cody Banks is a kid’s movie (though geared towards older kids), but not aimed at the same audience as Spy Kids (boy did that sequel suck). With this film little Frankie Muniz is starting to grow up and become a movie star. The last film he carried was Big Fat Liar last year, which was OK, but did quite well profit wise, though not anywhere near a blockbuster at the box office. It will be interesting to see how he is doing in four years. Of course this film is unbelievable (as are all James Bond films), but it is entertaining and Angie Harmon can spank me anytime. It could have used some more laughs, but still gets six couches out of ten for the About-Movies.com rating.