Cast:
Frankie Muniz as Cody Banks
Anthony Anderson as Derek
Hannah Spearritt as Emily
Daniel Roebuck as Mr. Banks
Keith Allen as Diaz
Anna Chancellor
Keith David as CIA Director
James Faulkner
Cynthia Stevenson as Mrs. Banks
Connor Widdows as Alex Banks
Critique:
Teenage CIA agent Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz) returns to the secret undercover training camp for young operatives. Once again, Cody is called upon to infiltrate the organization of a powerful bad guy by associating with kids close to him. He zooms off to London, where he is met by a ragtag group of agents displaying some of the worst stereotypes known to man, and proceeds to save the world.
As with the first Cody Banks movie, the success of the film rests all on the shoulders of Frankie Muniz who does another great job of supporting the movie. The child actors are by far the most rounded and believable characters, with Hannah Spearritt giving the girls in the audience a strong female character to relate to. Unfortunately, the adults in the movie are one dimensional with the exception of Anthony Anderson’s hip-hop, incompetent, and disgruntled CIA agent. There is no mention of Hillary Duff’s character from the first movie, who is absent in this one.
The action is not as flashy as the first movie, with fewer eye catching special effects, but there are more gadgets for Cody to play with. There are many exciting things to do and see in London but the location is more of a perk for the cast than important for the plot of the movie, only a few scenes of the city are shown in the background. The music is nothing exciting but not overpowering, complimenting the action well.
Who should see this movie? If you liked the first installment, then you will be happy with this one. Some of the situations are just as far fetched, but they are all in good fun. There are many things to laugh at with the majority of them being aimed at ten to fifteen year old boys. The slight romance of the first movie is not in this one, but it is not really missed either. With a target audience of about twelve years old there is not much thinking involved in watching it. Overall, it is a great movie for a young kid to watch: the violence is downplayed and the plot is classic good-guy vs. bad-guy. The movie is not as engaging as the first, but it still can entertain an adult watching it with the rest of the family.
