{"id":4226,"date":"2004-03-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4226"},"modified":"2018-02-12T11:03:27","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T19:03:27","slug":"agent-cody-banks-destination-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4226","title":{"rendered":"Agent Cody Banks: Destination London"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Agent<\/a>As any honest parent of a young child will tell you, there are days when you’ll happily shell out $40 in quick cash in exchange for popcorn and a couple of hours of relative peace and quiet. Save “Agent Cody Banks: Destination London<\/a>” for one of those days … or at least for a rainy one.<\/p>\n

While not quite up to the standards of “Spy Kids” — the James Bond of the kid spy movie genre — the first Cody Banks film slid by the on the charm of lead actor Frankie Muniz and the somewhat amusing contrast between his nerd by day\/spy by night indoctrination into the CIA.<\/p>\n

Like the first film, the fate of the free world is at stake, the adults are mostly dumb and Cody’s love interests are blond, non-threatening, pre-teen fantasy girls (Hilary Duff in the U.S. and Hannah Spearritt in London). On the plus side, there’s no real violence, actions have consequences and the plot moves somewhat logically — if you can get over a magical clarinet which convinces an orchestra of musical protegees that Cody is one of them. This is a movie that knows its audience and doesn’t overshoot.<\/p>\n

The kids are likeable enough and it’s difficult not to smile at a movie where everyone from the Queen of England to the dashiki-wearing prime minister of an unnamed country rocks out to “War, What is it Good For (Absolutely Nothing).”<\/p>\n

Unless my son inherits my discerning appetite for chick flicks in the next year or so, the next rainy day we’ll probably be cueing up for Cody Banks 3.<\/p>\n

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on March 18, 2004.<\/a><\/h6>\n

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