A passable "Spy Kids" clone albeit aimed a bare few years older, "Cody Banks" is light fun which the kids will love and Muniz fans will find their own joy in - certainly more than in last year's lacklustre "Big Fat Liar".
With a Bond spoof coming out seemingly every month there is nothing here which hasn't been done before - catsuit wearing beauties, lingere viewing X-ray glasses, an over the top Bond-esque villain out to destroy America's missle defense systems, and of course the ubiquitous 'training' scenes.
Thankfully that last element for the most part is skipped, instead we get right into a mission with a lot of the crappy exposition out of the way which is a big benefit. In fact despite all the retreads there's an overall good light fun sense to proceedings which makes it easy to digest.
Helping it along is the cast with Muniz proving more likable as a young teen rather than the bratty kid he portrays on 'Malcolm' - helping the cause is the somewhat thin but enjoyable difficulties he has relating to girls. Hilary Duff is an easy to like female lead and one of the big draws of the project - she's definitely got potential this one.
The adult cast includes Angie Harmon as a sexy superagent, Carl Weathers brooding as always, and Ian McShane camping it up as the baddie. All are given some painfully juvenile dialogue and material which comes across as somewhat slipshot, yet they never forget the tone of the material and at least seem to have fun with it (Harmon makes a far spunkier spy than Carla Gugino or even Heather Graham).
Whilst the concept may prove stronger than expected, its all let down by a barren script which is just as bad as last year's woeful spy spoof "The Tuxedo". The villain's plot seems silly and more to fill out time than anything else which is a shame, whilst the 'hiding my secret life from my parents' style subplot should've been played up more as its a showcase for some of the film's stronger comedy moments.
Director Harald Zwart also isn't the most adept at handling pacing so it all lacks an inate sense of drive or urgency. The gadgets are cool and the setup is here for what could've been a great kids picture, as is its more a passable time waster. The sequel is already in production and if they can improve on the script and craft it with a little more care - that could definitely rock. Far more entertaining than other kiddie projects like "Clockstoppers" but still muddily handled to result in an average effort.
