| Agent Cody Banks | |
| Director: | Harald Zwart |
| Producer: |
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| Screenplay: | |
| Story: | Jeffrey Jurgensen |
| Starring: |
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| Music: | John Powell |
| Cinematography: | Denis Crossan |
| Editing: | Jim Miller |
| Studio: | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures[1] |
| Distributor: | MGM Distribution Co. |
| Runtime: | 102 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $28 million[2] |
| Gross: | $58.8 million |
Agent Cody Banks is a 2003 American action comedy film directed by Harald Zwart. Frankie Muniz stars as a 15-year-old who has to finish his chores, avoid getting grounded, and save the world by going undercover for the CIA as a James Bond–type superspy. Hilary Duff, Angie Harmon, Keith David, Cynthia Stevenson, Daniel Roebuck, Darrell Hammond, Ian McShane, and Arnold Vosloo co-star. It was filmed in British Columbia and was released in the United States on March 14, 2003.
It was the first major film project for Duff apart from the film spinoff of Lizzie McGuire, as well as for Harmon, who had just come off a three-year stint as Assistant D.A. Abbie Carmichael on NBC's Law & Order. was released the following year. Agent Cody Bankss executive producers include Madonna (whose then-production company Maverick Films acquired the script) and Jason Alexander (he was originally attached to direct before being replaced by Vic Armstrong, who was ultimately replaced by Zwart).[3]
Cody Banks, a 15-year-old high school junior, applies for a junior field ops position at the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division after completing a training summer camp. Answering to his handler Agent Ronica Miles, Cody is called upon a mission to find information about a scientist named Dr. Albert Connors. Connors is employed by a SPECTRE type organization named ERIS led by Dr. Brinkman, and his henchman François Molay. As all CIA agents are known to Brinkman's organization, the CIA uses the unknown Banks, who is placed into the prep school of Dr. Connors' daughter Natalie, the William Donovan Institute.
Cody soon finds he has no social skill with girls and has no time to do this while balancing his chores and homework. The CIA decides to help by doing his chores and homework, trying to build his status, and going into the school to set him up with Natalie. The CIA also assemble a varying team of "experts" to train Cody into how to talk to girls, and issue him with a variety of gadgets with various functions.
Eventually, Cody befriends and falls in love with Natalie after rescuing her from a falling a ladder while putting up a banner, and he is invited to her 16th birthday party, where he goes undercover to her father's lab. Cody finds that Brinkman plans to use nanobots — which can destroy any carbon or silicon-based substance — to destroy the world's defense systems so he can threaten anyone who opposes him. Since the nanobots are inactive in the cold, he plans to use ice cubes to distribute them. After Connors, Brinkman, and François leave the lab, Cody tries taking one of the ice cubes, but melts when in his possession.
After Cody fights some delinquents at the party, the CIA suspends him from the mission. Meanwhile, with Connors refusing to aid him in his plans, Brinkman has François and his henchmen bring Natalie into his base in the Cascade Mountains. Meanwhile, Cody, disobeying orders to avoid Natalie, eats ice cream at a local restaurant with her. Cody attempts to explain things to Natalie but François and a group of henchmen ambush Cody and abduct Natalie.
With Cody removed from the mission, he gives his brother Alex the $5,000 from the CIA in exchange for keeping his disappearance a secret. Knowing Natalie's location via a tracking device in a necklace he gave her as a birthday present, Cody travels to the mountains using a rocket powered snowboard and other devices. After being discovered by Ronica, Cody persuades her to help him rescue Natalie. The pair infiltrate the laboratory and Cody rescues Natalie, also explaining the truth about why he went out with her.
However, Brinkman holds Natalie hostage and puts an ice cube with a nanobot inside on her forehead to make her father program the system. Cody activates a series of explosive charges he and Ronica planted throughout the base, and in the ensuing battle, Ronica fights off several of Brinkman's men, and Natalie places the ice cube with the nanobots into his mouth, causing the nanobots to devour him from the inside out. Cody later defeats François and sends him to the CIA using the SoloTrek XFV, before fleeing the exploding facility with Ronica, Natalie and Dr. Connors. The CIA welcomes Cody back to the team and congratulates him for completing the mission, and Cody and Natalie start a relationship.
For his participation, Muniz was paid $2 million, the highest paid to a child actor at that point since Macaulay Culkin.[4] Agent Cody Banks was developed as part of a broader strategy by MGM to make less-expensive films that can appeal to younger and niche audiences.[5] Both Muniz and Angie Harmon did most of their own stunts.[6] The film used Media.net’s Edit System Dailies to transfer pre-digitized Avid system files from the post production facility Rainmaker in Vancouver directly to the pic’s editing rooms in Los Angeles without having to wait for tapes to be delivered, allowing producers and executives to receive their viewing copies half a day sooner than through the traditional method.[7] Principal photography took place in 2002 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Agent Cody Banks holds a 38% approval rating and an average rating of 5.2/10 based on 104 reviews. The critics consensus states, "Should satisfy young teens, but offers nothing new for those who are familiar with the formula."[8] On Metacritic, it has a score of 41 out of 100 based on reviews from 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.[10] Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars. He said that kids would probably enjoy it, but, unlike the Spy Kids series, adults would probably not.[11]
Agent Cody Banks opened at #2 with $14 million behind Bringing Down the Houses second weekend.[12] By the time the film closed on July 31, 2003, it earned $48 million in the US and an additional $10.9 million internationally, adding up to a total $58.8 million.[13]
Frankie Muniz's character is asked twice if he is "in special ed". When the film was released on home video, MGM included an apologetic paragraph in response to criticism regarding these lines.
Muniz reprised his title role in the sequel, , which was released on March 12, 2004. Duff and Angie Harmon were replaced by different characters played by Anthony Anderson and Hannah Spearritt.