Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams

Plot synopsis:
The OSS now has a full child spy section, of which 13-year-old Carmen Cortez and 10-year-old Juni Cortez have become agents. They face particularly difficult competition with Gary and Gerti Giggles, the children of double-dealing agent Donnagon Giggles, whom Carmen and Juni helped to rescue in the previous film. It is shown that Carmen defends Gary, and has a crush on him, which strains her relationship with Juni.
After an incident at a local amusement park owned by Dinky Winks where the President's daughter Alexandra deliberately sabotages a thrill ride which juggles its passenger, forcing the Giggles and the Cortez kids to compete in the rescue. Donnagon, who has somehow hacked into the teleprompter which the President was reading from, is named the director of the OSS. Juni is fired after being framed by Gary (who was actually to blame) for losing the "Transmooker," a highly coveted device which can shut off all electronic devices. In his new position as director, Donnagon can carry on with his plan to steal the Transmooker, so he can rule the world.
Carmen manages to hack into the database, and reinstates Juni's level as an agent. She and Juni use some hints from Alexander Minion, and follow the trail to a mysterious island near Madagascar, which is home to Romero, a lunatic scientist. Romero has been attempting to create genetically-miniaturized animals, so he can make a profit by selling the animals to kids in "miniature zoos." He had an experiment go wrong after accidentally pouring growth concoction onto the mutated set of animals, as a result, he is unwilling to leave his lab, out of fear of being eaten. When Carmen is captured by a Spork, a breed of flying pigs, she meets Gerti, who reveals to her that Gary is actually evil. Carmen changes her feelings for Gary after he tries to kill Juni, and she sides with her brother. Meanwhile, Romero finds out that his creatures are much friendlier than he thought. After fighting pirate skeletons (that came alive after Juni stole a necklace from them), Carmen and Juni, along with the help of their family (who came to the island when they heard their kids were missing), Gerti, Romero and his creatures, destroy the Transmooker, and defeat Donnagon and Gary. Afterwards, Gregorio and Donnagon fight each other, as Gregorio put it, "the old-fashioned way."
Donnagon is fired by the President and his daughter; Gary is temporarily disavowed, and Gregorio is appointed director of the OSS by Alexandra on her father's behalf, while Juni resigns due to the impersonal treatment he had received by agents of the OSS, after being framed. As the Cortez family leaves the island, Romero gives Juni a miniature spider-monkey as a gift, and all the island's inhabitants bid farewell to the Cortez family.
During the credits, Machete has Carmen sing as an undercover pop star in a concert. Carmen says she can't sing so Machete gives her a mic which auto-tunes her voice, and a belt that helps her dance. He also gives Juni a guitar that plays itself. After the performance, Carmen asks Machete, "What, are you surprised your gadgets work?" Machete then tells Carmen, "I just realized, I never put any batteries in this." Carmen is shocked to find out she can, in fact, sing without auto-tune. As the credits come to a close, Dinky Winks paddles to Romero's island to strike up a business deal.

Tags: violence, action, entertaining

Review:
After enjoying some success with the surprisingly enjoyable & cheesy "Spy Kids,"  Director (and all around good guy) Robert Rodriguez now brings forth a sequel, "Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams" which is far less enjoyable and far more cheesy.
As a matter of fact, you'd be hard pressed to find more cheese anywhere outside of a Wisconsin dairy farm.Juni and Carmen Cortez (Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega) are back, now officially a part of OSS, and officially recognized as Spy Kids.
But the OSS, just like every other government bureaucracy, cannot resist expanding upon a good thing, so now there is an entire army of "spy kids" at their disposal; but Juni and Carmen are, of course, the most renowned.
Within in the first opening minutes of the film, which takes place in a truly inspired theme park, we quickly discern that Juni and Carmen have rivals: the Giggle kids (Matthew O'Leary and Emily Osment) who dearly covet the Cortez' fame and status.
Perhaps it would prevent the making of any more "Spy Kids" movies, which I'm beginning to think would be a very good thing.The plot revolves around a device known as a "transmooker"  -- which can be best described as the ultimate cloaking device, even able to cloak entire islands off the map.
Much of the cuteness and fun of the first Spy Kids film is completely lacking in the sequel.
Spy Kids 2 had everything I expected - a whole new adventure with characters from first that is fun, exciting, humorous, and still manages to teach about doing the right thing.
I also appreciated the references to the original ^_^ , and the special effects were even better than the first.The hardest people to please in this case would be my 2 daughters (4 & 7) who own the first Spy Kids on DVD and have seen it so many times they can act out the scenes down to the facial expressions and body motions.
When they saw Spy Kids 2 this past weekend they were transfixed and left the theater excited about seeing Carmen and Juni in their latest adventure.A great movie for adults and kids...
The first "Spy Kids" is an incredibly over the top but entertaining film for younger audiences and even though I still recommend this sequel I think that its just a little too over the top.
Story is of course about Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara) who have become top spies for their agency but now they are in competition for the best jobs by another brother/sister spy team.
I am recommending this film for its wild imagination and high tech energy and their are some nice tributes to the great Ray Harryhausen but if they continue to make these sequels they might want to think about simplifying the stories..
To its credit, "Spy Kids 2" does indeed display a lot of creativity and imagination, and that makes it a lot better than most family movies Hollywood makes.
Carmen and Juni Cortez are official Spy Kids, working for an organization called OSS (which probably stands for something, but I'm not sure what).
The situation becomes competitive, with the Cortezes rescuing Alexandra while the Giggleses retrieve the dangerous device (the Transmooger) that she had stolen from her father's office.As in the first film, Carmen and Juni's parents are Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) and Ingrid (Carla Gugino), who are also spies working for OSS.
And then there is Doctor Romero (Steve Buscemi), who is a very interesting character.The "film" was actually shot using high definition video, which looked good enough to never be a distraction.
If you LIKED seeing a good film followed up by a HORRIBLE sequel, you might also try watching Babe: Pig in the City.
Not that 'Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams' is god-awful or anything, it just didn't manage to eliminate the same problems the first film had.
The visual f/x were fairly were decent in parts but also very fake in others, but the overall artificiality remains in the world of the Spy Kids themselves.In the sequel, we see an established Spy Kid network which our heroes, Carmen and Juni Cortez (Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara), find themselves having some competition from the Giggles children (Matt O'Leary and Emily Osmont) in the field of saving the world.
The plot involves the Cortez kids heading to a mysterious island to retrieve a stolen weapon, while encountering genetically mutated (very fake) looking creatures, as well as a scientist named Romero (Steve Buscemi).
I've seen plenty of kids movies in my time, and many feel like they are genuinely overcoming a hurdle, or uniting a family rift or having a character reach a point of enlightenment.
'Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams' also lacked villain power, as if the bad guys were doing their thing for the sake of doing it, rather than establishing some madness behind their methods.
As the story begins, Juni and Carmen Cortez are agents on the rise in the new Spy Kids division of the OSS.
That's the only way this organization could ever exist.I enjoyed all the creatures made for this movie.It looks like they had alot of fun thinking them up.The gadgets are a bit far fetched but pretty damn cool anyway.The kids are solid in this and likeable.Steve Buscemi has an interesting and enjoyable role has a mad scientist.This movie is weirder and more out there than the 1st Spy Kids,which was quite weird and out there.Even though both are hard to believe,and even though both don't make too much both sense,both are great entertainment and great fun.Both movies are funny,colorful,creative and full of imagination and action.I'll give the edge to the first "Spy Kids" as the better movie,but "spy Kids 2" is a worthy sequel..
Anyway, this is another cool movie with great special effects and good acting.The junior spies return and this time they head to an mysterious island that is home to a wacky scientist and some strange creatures.
It's one of the first films shot completely digitally, and the special effects actually serve the story, rather than just being the sole reason the studio thinks you'll watch-- as with high-budget, low brains movies like "Daredevil" or "The Core," ...
And both the writing, acting AND special effects, as well as overall creativity (the MOST important thing) are not only better than the first Spy Kids, they're better than the first Harry Potter, as well.
While the story focuses a bit much on some silly CG monsters at the end, its still a fun film for kids of all ages.
Great special effects, a storyline that keeps moving along at a fast pace, excellent actors (including Antonio Banderas and Ricardo Montalban), and hilarious in-jokes that poke fun at other movies along the way.
here's hoping they make another spy kids movie with just as much fun and gadgets..
Apart from really enjoying the plot of the movie, which I won't re-iterate here, (I haven't seen Spy Kids 1 or 3), I found the audio commentary on the DVD by Robert Rodriguez, fantastic.
The story is just as silly as the first film but the effects are bigger (but not better) and in a way this takes away a little from the fun  the spectacle is not good enough to carry the film but at times that exactly what it feels like it is trying to do.
It still has a good dose of humour and is certainly not boring for adults but it must be said that I did not find it as enjoyable as the first film.The overuse of average effects is one problem that I didn't expect with Rodriguez but there it was.
In this mission Carmen(Alexa Vega) and Juni(Daryl Sabara) Cortez are on a mission to find the transmooker device hidden on an island before their two evil enemys Gary(Matt O' Leary) and Gerti(Emily Osment) Giggles find it and give it to their dad(Mike Judge) who wants to take over the world!
Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Steve Buscemi, Mike Judge, Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin, Matt O'Leary, Emily Osment, Ricardo Montalban, Holland Taylor, Alan Cumming, Taylor Momsen, and Christopher McDonald..
Spy Kids 2 is a film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez.
But there is always a way to make it presentable, where this film fails the most.Performances: Alexa Vega and Carla Juni were again adorable as the Spy Kids agents.
Sure there were plenty of things that didn't make sense (cinemasins would have a field day with this), but to me that's just part of what makes it so fun to watch.I've recently gone back to watch old movies I watched as a kid, and this is one of the ones I think held up the most..
How many other kids' movies out there are knowing reworkings of 'The Island Of Dr Moreau' (check out the character of, ahem, 'Romero'), featuring Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin, Steve Buscemi, and Mike Judge in the cast?Inspired madness.
The sort of kids' movie only a deliciously warped adult with a love for the films of his / her youth could make.
The special effects are good here, but the story lacks punch, and fun, and the movie cruises alone to it's predicable and watered down end.
The movie feels like a bad carbon copy of the first film but does retain a few of the good points made about family and sticking together.
Picking up where the first film left off (sort of), Carmen and Juni are definitely growing up and the actors that play them are definitely getting better with more experience.Alan Cumming, George Clooney, Tony Shalhoub, Carla Gugino, Antonio Banderas and Cheech Marin's appearances make the movie seem a true continuation (don't you hate when they make a sequel that just seems disjointed and out of place?), and Emily Osment, Holland Taylor, Steve Buscemi, Ricardo Montalban, Taylor Momsen, Matt O'Leary, and Bill Paxton's characters add a fresh and new feel to it as well, making it a relatively all-star ensemble cast.Sort of a different, more mature and fleshed out feeling effuses from Spy Kids 2, and the story manages to engage and entertain, as well as the continual use of incredible gadgets and captivating CGI (even the oft-criticized creatures that inhabit the Island of Dreams).
SPY KIDS 2:THE ISLAND OF LOST DREAMS(2002) Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Antonio Bandares, and Carla Gugino.
This movie was great in that the gadgets were so surprising, and that the CHARACTERS REMAINED THE SAME, you know the Cortez family....just a little older, Carmen and Juni...older..showing more rank at the OSS, but the plot was a little shaky.
Seeing the whole cast of a Quentin Tarentino movie (Antonio Banderas, Steve Buscemi, Danny Trejo) playing "nice guys" is kind of hilarious :) Very a good surprise.
I absolutely loved the original Spy Kids, but this sequel was beyond terible.The plot was inane, but you don't go into a kids' movie expecting a great plot.
But in the sequel, the kids seemed to take their world and its gadgets for granted, like it was a birthright rather than an amazing journey.Studios these days seem to follow the same pattern:  come up with a somewhat interesting new idea in films, release sequels of that same idea until the sequels are so bad that they go straight to video.
Even though I enjoyed the first film just a little bit more, "Spy Kids 2" thoroughly entertained me, my wife and my three children.
Cute, funny, original, made a bit of sense, and moved along nicely.Our group of seven who paid good money to view this crap ( Spy Kids 2 ), included two adults, and five children aged 7-12.
Spy Kids 1 was such a surprisingly fun, interesting movie, that I just couldn't wait to see Spy Kids 2.Well, as they say, things are never as good as the first time.
Sure, the gadgets were neat, and everyone's acting was okay, but the "fun and delight" of the first one was just missing.Maybe it is because what made the first one so clever was the fact that the kids kinda stumbled into the whole spy thing.
When the disaster happens that calls each team into action to save the world from destruction, the plot becomes a three-way competition - good guy against good guy against evil-doer.The entire movie is chock full of special effects, and was shot entirely digitally, that the `texture' of the film emulsion itself feels surreal.
Really Fun. Another winner in Robert Rodriguez' budding `Spy Kids' franchise, equally as good as the first and showing real potential for the future.
(Rodriguez seems to prefer shooting at twilight, giving everything an orange hue.) But it does seem more expansive, perhaps because he's creative enough to incorporate welcome new characters, such as the kids' grandparents (played with relish by Ricardo Montalban and Holland Taylor) and another brother-sister spy team (Emily Osment and Disney Channel favorite Matthew O'Leary) as well as fresh retakes on characters from the first film (Steve Buscemi takes on the Alan Cumming role).
Rodriguez' screenplay once again takes on the theme of family but this time it's carried poignantly throughout (it got dropped rather quickly in `Spy Kids') and the result, coupled with his extraordinary vision, is a film that will thoroughly satisfy just about everyone..
While the parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) take a backseat in this one, the kids Carmen and Juni (Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara) carry the movie that this time takes them to a land that will be a whole new world to younger audience members and seem a little familiar to the older ones.
Like its predecessor, this sequel seems to have it all: kid-appealing humor, special effects, intelligent wit for the adults, a quick-paced storyline to keep even the most easily bored viewer interested, and a moral message of family values that would even elicit an `aww, shucks' from the die-hard single guy that likes to see things blow up!
Like its predecessor, this sequel seems to have it all: kid-appealing humor, special effects, intelligent wit for the adults, a quick-paced storyline to keep even the most easily bored viewer interested, and a moral message of family values that would even elicit an `aww, shucks' from the die-hard single guy that likes to see things blow up!
When the disaster happens that calls each team into action to save the world from destruction, the plot becomes a three-way competition  good guy against good guy against evil-doer.The entire movie is chock full of special effects, so much so that the `texture' of the film emulsion itself feels surreal.
Both Spy Kids films do a very good job at avoiding both, without also sounding like a parody of such simplistic and usually sophomoric messages.
Both Spy Kids films do a very good job at avoiding both, without also sounding like a parody of such simplistic and usually sophomoric messages.
Although not quite as "tight" as the first Spy Kids movie, this flick was certainly a whole lot of fun.
I think this sequel is a lot of fun, not quite as good or as innovative as its predecessor but a major step up from Spy Kids 3D:Game Over, which had potential but was surprisingly mediocre.
But this isn't another lazy sequel - Robert Rodriguez ensures that this is several leagues ahead of the Austin Powers followups, in part because unlike Mike Myers he does more than just Xerox the script for the last one.It's not quite as fresh as the original - between the last movie and this one OSS Junior has sprung up, with Carmen and Juni no longer unique but rather the first two of a line of international Spy Kids - but one of the best things about this first sequel is how the director (writer, producer, cinematographer, editor, production designer, co-composer, visual effects supervisor, sound effects editor, end credits songwriter, re-recording mixer etc) takes a character who was a good guy in the first movie and promotes him to the status of villain; it's things like that that makes this movie both interesting and fun.Interesting because it doesn't try and talk down to kids (the secret of appealing to kids AND adults; tell a story well), or shunt aside adults, because the "We Are Family" message comes over without the use of a sledgehammer, and because it actually seems to extend the story rather than repeat it.
The original `Spy Kids' had a great screenplay, which combined action, comedy and special effects in right doses.
I don't like kid's movies at the best of times....
I liked this movie a great deal; not sure why it's being maligned here.What's also interesting about it is Robert Rodriguez's ability to work his Mexican pride into this film.
Believe me this movie was terrible, the first was great and spy kids 3 in my head nearly surpasses the original.
Well, as it turns out, I liked it.Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams picks up after the events of the first film.
Rodriguez, I'm sure, wanted to make both "Spy Kids" movies for personal, not commercial, reasons.
Whereas Rodriguez's movie, like the original "Spy Kids" but more so, has no moment that's not contrived, no element that isn't the result of market research.
This in my opinion is a must see movie, really good fun for parents and kid's alike..
Watching both Juni and Carmen age and mature a bit (both have "romantic" interests of a sort in this film) is fun, and both of them are only getting better.
Spy Kids 2 is one of the most creative sequels ever, fun from beginning to end, with Steve Buscemi turning in another perfect performance and stealing the movie out from under everyone, spies and/or kids alike.