A weird but fun movie that I have always enjoyed.

I still get PTSD thinking about this movie

Sometimes, a kid's movie can just be a kid's movie. It can be fun and hammy without being anything more. Spy Kids is that movie. Everyone on set is having a visible blast, and it's impossible not to be drawn into it when the movie so happily winks and holds its arms open for you. There are far worse ways to spend an hour and a half.

I have very fond memories of this trio love as a kid. I will say, as a kid I never knew who this Robert Rodriguez guy was that made these films. Nowadays, I obviously know he’s a mad man, and I’m very happy to know he’s dabbled in family films. I wish more “big” writer/directors would make a nice family film. How badass would it be if more people did that? Act as both an introductory movie for their catalog, but also a movie the adults wanna watch. ANYWAYS, this movie was a good time. The right amount of action and cheese, and makes sense why it became a franchise!

Rating: 3.5/5 - 8/10 - Would Recommend

20 years later and I still think this is cute. I just showed it to my kids and they instantly asked when can we watch the next one.

I loved this movie as a kid and it’s still very entertaining two decades later. It has more than just a few cheesy laugh out loud and soft-hearted moments perfectly suited for a family film. “You’re not _that_ strong Juni”

Kinda lame, contrived and stupid, even by kids film standards. It doesn’t even feel like something worthy of the Disney Channel (despite being lit like one of their films), it’s more like proto Illumination Entertainment.
Nevertheless, I don’t think it’s entirely fair that the visuals of Marvel’s recent output are getting compared to this. Sure, their effects are of similar quality, but Marvel movies wished they’d be half as imaginative as this.
The camerawork and set design prevent it from being complete shit, it’s the only saving grace of this film.
It’s also a very good example showing that casting high caliber actors goes a long way for kids films, because it’s often required to ham it up to a certain degree, and a lot of actors can’t do that without making it suck.

3/10

Incredibly cheesy and dumb, Spy Kids is a family action-comedy from writer/director Robert Rodriguez. When a husband and wife spy team are captured by a megalomaniacal children’s show host who’s building a robot army their kids embark on a mission to rescue them. The adult supporting cast is rather good and includes Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alan Cumming, and Teri Hatcher. However it’s the kids that have to carry the film, and while Alexa Vega gives a fairly decent performance (for a child actor), Daryl Sabara is intolerably bad (poisoning every seen he’s in). And, the special effects and costumes look extremely cheap and cartoonish (especially the green screen backgrounds). Knowing Rodriguez, this is probably an intentional homage to ‘50s sci-fi, but the look doesn’t work. Also, the comedy is extraordinarily juvenile, lacking any cleverness or subtlety. A poorly made film, Spy Kids is an insulting piece of garbage.