Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
49
2012
41
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
84
Avatar![]()
69
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
53
Blind Side
53
Book of Eli, The
55
Christmas Carol, A
57
Daybreakers
43
Dear John
27
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
55
Edge of Darkness
45
Extraordinary Measures
83
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
42
From Paris with Love
65
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The
74
Invictus
57
It's Complicated
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Leap Year
33
Legion
42
Lovely Bones, The
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
34
Ninja Assassin
19
Old Dogs
xx
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
39
Planet 51
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Princess & the Frog, The
64
Road, The
57
Sherlock Holmes
27
Spy Next Door, The
36
Tooth Fairy
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
83
Up in the Air![]()
xx
Valentine's Day
25
When in Rome
71
Where the Wild Things Are
xx
WolfMan, The
63
Youth in Revolt
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
46
44 Inch Chest
83
Ajami![]()
73
Amreeka
xx
Barefoot to Timbuktu
19
Bitch Slap
24
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76
Broken Embraces
64
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
84
Cove, The![]()
84
Crazy Heart![]()
21
Crazy on the Outside
48
Creation
xx
Daddy Long Legs
81
Damned United, The![]()
68
Departures
62
District 13: Ultimatum
85
Education, An![]()
71
Eyes Wide Open
24
Falling Awake
81
Fish Tank![]()
56
For My Father
xx
From Mexico with Love
43
Frozen
68
Girl on the Train, The
52
Killing Kasztner
74
Last Station, The
43
Little Traitor, The
51
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
73
Me and Orson Welles
76
Messenger, The
57
Missing Person, The
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
xx
My Name is Khan
49
Nine
63
North Face
xx
October Country
67
Off and Running
52
Paranoids, The
49
Pop Star on Ice
49
Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
xx
Promised Lands (Re-release)
69
Red Riding Trilogy, The
29
Saint John of Las Vegas
69
September Issue, The
36
Serious Moonlight
63
Shinjuku Incident, The
77
Single Man, A
xx
Still Bill
76
Terribly Happy
74
That Evening Sun
19
To Save a Life
68
Town Called Panic, A
59
Until the Light Takes Us
xx
Videocracy
65
Waiting for Armageddon
82
White Ribbon![]()
43
Women in Trouble
xx
Word is Out
64
Young Victoria, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 23 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Family/Kids
Written by: Robert Rodriguez
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 7, 2002
DVD: February 18, 2003
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for action sequences and brief rude humor
Starring Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Dale Dudley, Steve Buscemi, and Ricardo Montalban
When last we saw them, the Cortez kids had just joined the family business in order to win back their kidnapped parents. Now, Carmen and Juni are Level 2 OSS agents, about to set off on their own solo mission, or so they think. (Dimension Films)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Spy Kids Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3-D
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kevin Courrier
Blissfully entertaining sequel to last year's Spy Kids, Rodriguez is once again just as good -- if not better -- than the gadgets at hand.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Like a whacked pinata, it spills over with treasures - and one of the best things to fall out is Steve Buscemi, doing a riotously meek variation on the mad-scientist-with-cracked-lenses-and-lab-coat bit.
Read Full Review >Film Threat K.J. Doughton
Rodriguez knows kids. No doubt kids will be clamoring to get acquainted with Spy Kids 2, the best sequel to emerge from a children’s franchise in the past several years.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Rodriguez is that rare filmmaker who doesn't draw a hard, fixed line between entertaining kids and grown-ups -- he knows that in order to understand what will delight kids, you have to know what will tickle adults as well.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
The movie is a gaudy, noisy thrill ride -- hyperactive, slightly out of control and full of kinetic, mischievous charm.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
The Cortez family flies into action with the same testy family dynamics, silly humor and cool gadgetry that animated the first Spy Kids.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Though it's longer and more elaborate than it needs to be, it shares its predecessor's smart but relaxed sense of humor, a sophisticated imagination and the ability to be sharp and playful without being malicious.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The rare sequel that magnifies the scope of the original without diminishing the fun.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
This is joyful filmmaking, imbued with an infectious, giddy enthusiasm.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
It's a wonderfully silly family movie that holds its audience in high regard.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Has enough heart and smarts to recommend it as one of the season's worthier family entertainments.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Has once again caught lightning in a bottle and unleashed it on audiences, blending humor, adventure, and a lot of nifty special effects-enabled gadgets and creatures into a movie that provides 1 1/2 hours of unfettered entertainment for children, grandparents, and everyone in between.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The inventiveness is still superior and the network of fiends and family is extended.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A children's movie done with genuinely youthful spirit and an easy self-kidding mastery of its own high-tech gadgetry.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The whole film has a lively Mexican-American tilt, from the Hispanic backgrounds of the young actors to the surprise appearance of none other than Ricardo Montalban, as Grandpa, in a wheelchair with helicopter capabilities.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Though slightly lacking in the warmth of the first, should no doubt please audiences.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
The moments of inspired originality are all too infrequent. There's enough eye candy and marvels on screen, however.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The action is so relentless that after a while things start to feel hollow, but Rodriguez still seems to believe the moral articulated at the end of the first film -- that keeping a family together is the real adventure.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Rodriguez has the chops of a smart-aleck film school brat and the imagination of a big kid, and they come together to remake the world in the image of its young audience. It's more amusement park ride than adventure, which in this case is exactly the demographic he's reaching for.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
What's lacking is the simplicity that made the original.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
The poised Vega and pleasingly phlegmatic Sabara are resolutely uncute performers, and the reach-out-and-touch-it gadgetry carries a homey scent of proactive nostalgia. Spy Kids 2 is an island of lost Circuit Cities.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
In Spy Kids 2, Rodriguez tries to hold his family-spy saga together with the digital equal of rubber bands and chewing gum.
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
To the delight of gadgetheads and the dismay of the rest of us, Spy Kids' paraphernalia is better developed and considerably more fun than its story.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Eye-catching and entertaining but less inspired than the original.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
There's way too much CGI gadgetry, some inventive, much simply flashy in the worst kind of video-game way. The kids are nearly lost in the glitz.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
The plot is tired, the energy sputtering, the jokes less manic. "Spy Kids" was a shot out of nowhere; Spy Kids 2 feels like a shot from someplace tiresomely familiar.
New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky
It's far more than merely disappointing that Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams lacks the charm and wit -- and humanity --of its predecessor. It's dispiriting.
LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
This time around, writer-director Robert Rodriguez has stumbled badly, creating a clunky, gadget-happy film full of characters -- even returning ones -- about whom it is hard to care.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
One overly busy (not to mention shopworn) story, which regurgitates everything from H.G. Wells's "The Island of Dr. Moreau" to the herky-jerky monsters of Ray Harryhausen to James Bond to "The Mummy."
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 23 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
[Anonymous] gave it a7:
More kid fluff, but the people sure know how to do effects.
H S gave it a10:
Best moive ever!!!!
Chris W. gave it a 10:
Sam b lost his mind.i liked the movie.alexa is pretty in sk2.
DAVID Y. gave it a 10:
I thought the stunts they did were awesome.
Jessica S. gave it a 10:
This is a cool movie very very cool.
Sam B. gave it a 3:
This movie sucks.end of story.
B. S. gave it a 0:
This is what happens when writers get a good idea but runoutof bear and write something pothic while sobber.
