Welcome to the second blog in my Greatish Performances section. The first one was a few years ago and focused on Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka. As a reminder this is a blog about a performance, not a review of the movie.
Spy Kids was a fun family film that came out at the tail end of the 90s. Directed by Robert Rodriguez of El Mariachi fame and starring his go to guy Antonio Banderas. Antonio has always been known as kind of an intense actor, starting in movies that filmed overseas and soon he made his way here and married Melanie Griffith, and I think unlike alot of other hollywood couples they are still together.
Anyway Antonio plays Gregorio Cortez a father of two kids and loving husband to Ingrid. The secret is that Ingrid (played by the still hot Carla Gugino) and him were spies who were given an assignment years ago to kill each other, instead they fell in love and got married. Then retired from the spy biz and had kids. Living off of their riches and acting as consultants to other spy agencies. However they still have enemies and he and Ingrid have to downplay their "spyness" thus their kids find them weak parents. But one case gets their motors going again, but they get captured and their kids who now know the truth have to save them.
It's a very unique and cute story, but it is Antonio's deft use of humor from the way he talks to the way he moves and reacts to things that make this film a classic and his performance greatish.
Some of the good stuff. When he was a spy early in his career he had a mustache much like the one in the pic above. He is now clean shaven, but when he is required to go spy he slips on a fake mustache. When Ingrid wants to go on an assignment with him, she whispers seductive things to him and you watch as his resolve melts away. Opening and closing the car door for his wife is one big flourish, over exagerrated in a fun way. His deft comedic timing with lines and improvs shows that he is a top flight comic actor. He allows anything to happen to him, including having his face smooshed against a glass wall. And just his pure joy that radiates from him during the film proves that he was having the time of his life playing this charming yet goofy role and having the acting chops to do both at various times so that you realize when he is charming, he's not acting charming he is charming, and when he is goofy, it's not just to mug to the camera the goofiness comes out of the situation and the type of person he is.
It's a shame that his role decreases in the other two Spy Kids films he was in. However, the final climatic battle between him and the bad guy in the second film is the one time in that film where he appears to recreate the fun and goofiness he had with the character in one of the all time funniest final battle scenes. In the end Antonio Banderas is a killer action actor, killer dramatic actor, and a truly hilarious comedic actor. I hope to see more of that in the future.
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