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Liz and I went to Spy Kids 2 tonight. Usually I am dubious of such things, especially sequels, but we both had a great time. Spoiler-free commentary follows…

What’s to like?

• Fun audience - kids and adults laughing at all the right moments. What a good feeling!
• Outrageously imaginative - madcap visuals that are so off-the-wall that they gel to form a perfectly believable kooky movie universe.
• Antonio Banderas - sadly underutilized, but has some great moments.
• Mike Judge, who lapses into the “settle down, Beavis” voice in several scenes. Woo!!
• Steve Buscemi - a broken-down mad scientist who for some reason ends up reminding me uncannily of Alton Brown. I think it’s the hair, and the glasses, and maybe the shapes of their heads, and Buscemi’s matter-of-fact dialogue about experiments gone horribly awry that sound like they were lifted straight from any given episode of Good Eats.
• Ricardo Montalban, suave and funny, but also way underutilized. I’ve heard his health is on the decline, which is sad, but he looks like he had a heck of a lot of fun on this movie.
• Stay for the credits sequence — you get a fun extra scene, plus wacky outtakes! How can you go wrong??
• Robert Rodriguez loves great movies and it shows. Countless movie references and in-jokes… A couple good Lord of the Rings jokes, a delightful Star Wars reference, a moment straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and more. Best of all, though, this movie is downright Harryhausen-tastic! Rodriguez throws in heaps of references to Harryhausen’s stop-motion effects masterpieces, and the degree of caring and reverence used really shows.

What disappointed me?

• The digitally captured image is often noticeably softer than or just plain wrong-looking when compared to movies shot on traditional film stock. In some lighting situations, it works great, but in others it bugged me.
• The obviousness of the blue- and green-screen effects. Ouch! I really long for the good ol’ days of in-camera effects work. My highly nostalgic kudos go to PJ for keeping that art alive in the Lord of the Rings films.
• No good opportunity to yell “KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!!!!!” when Ricardo Montalban is onscreen. I didn’t want to spoil anybody else’s fun. That and I was sober.
• Maybe it’s just the fact that I have in-laws now, but I would have enjoyed more material with the in-law tensions. What was there seemed a little forced, but it felt forced because of the small amount of screen time it received.

But what about the really important stuff? That’s right, the trailers!

• The Emperor’s Club - Looks profoundly lame. Should have been titled “Not Quite Dead Poet’s Society,” or perhaps “Undead Poet’s Society” since it looks dug up and re-heated.

• Treasure Planet - Has some pretty visuals, and some pretty awful visuals. It seems like some nice ideas, poorly executed, and some okay ideas that look nice, and some bad ideas with a lot of money behind them. The kids all said it looked sweet, but I think it will suck. It basically looks like Treasure Island meets Titan AE, and that just doesn’t seem like a good thing at all.
• Shaolin Soccer - It’s a movie about soccer as a martial art! This looks so beautifully campy and insane that I don’t think I can miss it. Liz, on the other hand, looked upon my joyous visage and began to despair… Sorry, honey!
• The Tuxedo - It’s Jackie Chan! Pretending to be a secret agent! With a gadget-laden tuxedo of insane goofy antics! And it’s got James Brown! HELL YEAH!

And now it’s late, again, and I have to sleep. Bother.

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