Review of:Agent Cody Banks (2003)
Director:Helen Lesnick
Rating:
Starring:Frankie Muniz, Hilary Duff, Andrew Francis, Angie Harmon, Darrell Hammond
Agent Cody Banks is the newest film in a growing wave of films about spies that are trained in their pre adolescent years. Much like the spykids films Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz) is trained in the art at a young age. The difference is that Banks is trained at the C.I.A. a very real organization.
The premise of the film is simple-Agent Cody Banks must infiltrate a prep school and get in good with the beautiful Natalie Connors (Hilary Duff) who just happens to be the daughter of a brilliant scientist that is developing nanobots technology for the ERIS organization. With this small technology you could disable anything that you wanted to. Cody Banks only has one problem. Out of the millions of dollars that were spent in his training the only thing that they forgot was the course on talking to girls. Believable no, but the film hangs its hat on the premise and runs with it. Flanked by his handler Ronica Miles (Angie Harmon) he will try to find the voice to carry out his missions objectives,
Frank Muniz does an admirable job of trying to keep this very thin storyline entertaining. With a stronger storyline this film could have stood out from the pack with a cast that can mostly be seen on Nickelodeon shows. How long did they think the premise of him not being able to communicate would generate laughs? Director Harold Zwart (One Night At McCool's) has the spy part of things down. That portion of the film is passable with some scenes that keep your interest, but nothing out of the spectacular. Hillary Duff is used mainly for eye candy, and this part could have been filled with any actress out of the Nickelodeon stable. Since the release of the film is set to Springbreak you have to really take it for what it is, and that is a film geared toward the young adult crowd trying to take their minds off the books.
