The Movie: Although this is really a kids movie, I had heard that it was quite entertaining, so I decided to give it a shot. I've got some mixed feelings about it. It did have some moments of clever humor, but overall I found this film a disjointed conglomeration of styles. In some cases, the movie seems to follow a strict code of realism (or at least about as realistic as any James Bond movie), but then in a couple moments of action, the movie takes on an almost cartoonish quality. This inconsistency has a sort of jarring effect, or at least it did on me.

Also, there were a few moments in the movie where it was pretty apparent that they cheaped out or cut some corners on some effects, and it's so obvious, it's almost disheartening to see. Maybe the filmmakers figured that kids wouldn't notice, or wouldn't care. I don't know.

The premise, if you don't know, is that these kids parents are secret agents, but the kids don't know. But when the parents get into some trouble, the kids find out, and it becomes up to them to rescue the parents. Kind of a neat idea, I think. And I did enjoy the seeing this particular cast, which included Robert Patrick, Teri Hatcher, Cheech Marin, and Antonio Banderas.

So, I'm gonna say that this movie is just average. It's entertaining enough, but too transparent at times.

The DVD: The quality of this DVD is just slightly below average. The video transfer seemed weak on the black point, and had a general softness to it. Also, I felt that the image was grainier than I would have expected. It, like the audio, was adequate, but not exceptional in the least.

This release isn't long on the special features either, with a theatrical trailer and a teaser trailer being the only real special features on this disc. The rest of the extras are just advertisements for more Miramax/Buena Vista products.