Such a frustrating disappointment

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This time around Cody Banks is at a summer camp training program for the C.I.A. and one night helicopters come in and attack. Banks thinks its a practice mission only to find it was real and that his camp trainer was a bad guy and the helicopters had came for him. He then is sent to London to join a musical group and find out information on a bad guy who is married to the conductor. He soon learns that his C.I.A. trainer is over there and he and the bad guy are working on devices to have brain control over humans. This time he has a partner who sticks by his side posing as a cook and soon finds out one of his band mates is a secret agent as well.Much better than the first one, but still was a let down. This time around Banks seemed a little more grown up and his partner played by Anderson did a great job with one liners, in fact the whole cast was better than the original. There was lots more comedy. Much better music and the director seemed to aim more at the story than the action, which is good in a kids film. The director shot it as if it were a drama dealing more with character as opposed to the director in part 1 which tried hard to shoot it as a hard action film. All and all it was a better film, but it still was just for kids and lacked anything appealing to anyone over the age of 15.As I said direction was better from a guy trying to prove him self and did a good job, but haven't seen much else from him after this. Much of the same cast was back Keith David, Daniel Roebuck, etc. New comers included Anthony Anderson and I thought he made this movie great, always been a fan of his and his one liners. I really liked the music better too, not only was the score better but they added some decent rock songs including Rancids "Fall Back Down".I must say this James Bond wanna be was about the same as the first one and was short on action and heavier on gadgets. It would be a good film to watch for a younger audience and it's very kid friendly, but adults wouldn't enjoy it too much. 3/10 stars

The first film was quite a kiddie spoof, or tribute almost, to James Bond, unfortunately, this sequel, even in James Bond's country, isn't as good. Basically Cody Banks (Malcolm in the Middle's Frankie Muniz) this time poses as a gifted cello playing pupil to attend a music school, and at the same time foil some bad guys who are creating some mind control chips. Joining Cody is less experienced Derek Bowman (Scary Movie 3 & 4's Anthony Anderson), and Scotland Yard counterpart Emily Sommers (S Club 7's Hannah Spearritt), and they go against rogue agent, now bad guy Victor Diaz (Keith Allen). That's really all I can say about the story, it really isn't that memorable. Also starring Cynthia Stevenson as Mrs. Banks, Daniel Roebuck as Mr. Banks, Four Weddings and a Funeral's Anna Chancellor as Lady Josephine Kenworth, Bridget Jones's Diary's James Faulkner as Lord Duncan Kenworth, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's David Kelly as Trival, Paul Kaye, aka Dennis Pennis as Neville Trubshaw, The Fast Show's Mark Williams as Inspector Crescent, Volcano's Keith David as CIA Director and James Dreyfus as Gordon. It may be in London (in my home country), Anderson may add some needed humour, the gadgets and special effects aren't as cool as before, and Muniz doesn't really do as well as he did previously, all in all, more for the kids who enjoyed the first one. Adequate!

Before I saw this movie on DVD, I had low expectations about this film because of the negative reviews about it. I must say that I liked it, a lot. This film is just as good as the first Banks minus Hilary Duff. This time around, Banks attends a CIA camp during the summer. One night, troops came to take the leader of the camp away. But, Banks thought it was just a drill. How wrong he turned out to be. The guy who escaped is a mind-control geek and he wants to use the devices to take over the world. Banks must head to London, team up with two more agents(a hot chick and an agent who stays in London), and stop the world from turning into mind-control freaks. The acting is great especially with all three agents played by Frankie Muniz, Anthony Anderson, and Hannah Spearitt. The plot was a simple one with a few comedic points added in. I recommend this movie to everybody. I rate this film a 9/10.

Seems quite a few people have given this film a bad rap. Well, let's take a different look at it.My younger children, my wife and I watched this film and enjoyed it. We recently rented the first Cody Banks flick. We didn't preview it but there were some scenes in it that were disturbing to our smaller children. This wasn't the case with Cody Banks 2. It puzzles me why this movie got such a low rating.(Film rating is a bit of a beef of mine. Movies today have so many different aspects to consider: Score, Content, Character Development, Pacing, Editing, etc. And 1 star is so unfair.)I gave a higher rating because this film was toned down from the original. The childish tone was intentional to contrast it with the very "mature" feel of the first movie. It's more like a family Disney movie: The violence is stylized with humor that's better understood by children. The score is very playful throughout.The camera work is fine and the plot is something younger children can understand and appreciate. Hey: it's really a spy comedy.My wife and I felt it was an all round better film than the first. We recommend it for families that watch films together. Rent it before you buy.