agmtw logo
search
Spy Kids: Armageddon (2023)

Spy Kids: Armageddon (2023)

Shallow kids' entertainment that fulfills the bare minimum of having a coherent plot

4.5

Movie

United States of America
English
Action, Action & Adventure, Adventure, Comedy
2023
ROBERT RODRIGUEZ
Billy Magnussen, Connor Esterson, D.J. Cotrona
94 min

TLDR

All you need to know is there is a gadget in this movie that's set to "Cute Overload" that I think makes the bad guys significantly more frightening.

What it's about

After accidentally giving a megalomaniacal game developer access to a powerful hacking software, the children of two spies are tasked with saving their parents and the world.

The take

The Spy Kids movies have always been knowingly corny, which hasn't changed for this latest installment—it's just that it also has an odd lack of color and personality to its generic action movie shenanigans. This is especially disappointing given the film's focus on video games, which it only seems to understand in their most surface level terms. And because there's a lack of definition in the movie's rules and logic, the plot progresses without any weight or sense of mounting excitement. These are just people going through the motions toward some unclear message about the value of honesty and kindness, which never really factor into the actual adventure and keep the status quo firmly unchanged.

What stands out

None of this is the child actors' fault. Both Connor Esterson and Everly Carganilla are competent young performers, given the very little they get to work with. They're neither too precocious nor too cutesy, and they work well as anchors to this increasingly nonsensical story. And apart from them, Billy Magnussen plays his cookie cutter villain with a surprising amount of gravitas—dead serious about his belief in fixing a world he believes to be essentially broken. There are moments when Magnussen seems to belong in a different movie altogether, but his character's sneering confidence manages to stand out as one of the few good things here.

Comments

Add a comment

Your name

Your comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

More like this in

Rebel Ridge (2024)

A suspenseful, veristic crime story about abusive police with action film tropes to prevent you from dissociating

8.5

Booksmart (2019)

Two academic overachievers from high school set out to prove that they're a smart and fun for one last time.

9.0

Ran (1985)

Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of King Lear is an epic historical drama set in sixteenth-century Japan, abundant with blood, betrayal, and battles for ultimate power.

8.4

Handsome Devil (2016)

A sweet and easy coming-of-age comedy

8.0

Whisper of the Heart (1995)

Finds magic in the ordinary every day—and reminds us the most special art is that which comes from the heart

8.3

Fallen Angels (1995)

An evocative masterpiece that captures the wildness of a big city.

9.1

Hearts Beat Loud (2018)

Nick Offerman with the feels

8.0

The Grizzlies (2020)

An uplifting sports drama set in a remote Indigenous community

7.4

Thelma (2024)

A lovely and bad-ass tribute to the fierceness of old age

8.4

The Disaster Artist (2017)

8.6

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.