"Agent Cody Banks" delivers just what you expect it to. A combination of "Doogie Howser" and "James Bond," "Agent Cody Banks" will appeal to prepubescent girls with the hots for Frankie Muniz. Filled with good special effects, Angie Harmon with an enhanced bosom, and likable performances by Muniz and Duff, "Agent Cody Banks" is a summer film relegated to the dead of winter.

Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz) is a 15-year-old CIA operative. He was recruited by Uncle Sam because he did well in science and liked to cruise internet spy sites. Brinkman (Ian McShane) wants to rule the world. He hired Dr. Connors (Martin Donovan) to invent microscopic robots with the appetite of Stephen King's Langoliers. While Dr. Connors thinks the robots will be used to eat oil spills and protect the environment, Brinkman wants to program them to eat the US nuclear arsenal and leave America defenseless. Dr. Connors balks at programming the robots for that purpose. Brinkman decides to put pressure on the good doctor by threatening his 15-year old daughter Natalie (Hilary Duff).

The director of the CIA (Keith David) has lost several adult agents to Brinkman's henchmen. He decides to activate Cody Banks and set him up in Natalie Connors prep school. Cody is to get close to Natalie, get invited to her birthday party, and infiltrate Dr. Connors's lab. Cody is being handled by CIA operative Ronica Miles (Angie Harmon). Cody is a natural at karate, stunt driving, computer hacking and the like. The one thing Cody is totally inept at is talking to girls. Will Agent Cody Banks charm Natalie? Will he be able to fight off Brinkman's henchman, Molay (Arnold Vosloo)? Will he save the world for Democracy? Of course he will! This is a kid's movie. No bleak, realistic endings here.

"Agent Cody Banks" is totally preposterous. It doesn't pretend to be more than it is. MGM spared little expense on the production. The movie could have very well been a James Bond thriller. There are tons of gadgets including X-Ray sunglasses. Bet you can't guess what Cody does with those. Brinkman's mountain fortress harkens back to the excellent Bond sets built at Shepperton Studios in England. Ian McShane is appropriately nasty as the chief villain, while Arnold Vosloo turns in another of his patented badguy performances. The pre-teen crowd I saw this with ohh'ed and ahh'ed at Frankie Muniz's fight scenes. The action scenes are well done. If you can get past the teen-spy premise. "Agent Cody Banks" is an expensive piece of fluff, which should make the 10 to 12 crowd happy. My 14-year-old son liked it, but said he wouldn't want to watch again.

Rusty White, 2003