This will be a new weekly feature at The Movie Buff called Flashback Friday, where writer Daniel Prinn will have a conversation with his younger self, about what he liked about the film as a kid, aspects he sees now, and, if he still thinks it’s a good film. It’s an article that will blend script, review, and a slight bit of biography. Above all else, it will have a lot of stupid jokes—and hopefully it makes you laugh. The movie in the first feature is “Agent Cody Banks,” and heavy spoiler warning ahead.
This is my first crack again at feature writing or review writing in a little more than six months. As I look at my documents, the last thing anything is dated to work on something creative, is September 2024. It’s been a long time without a creative spark. Working in retail will do that to you…
Films that Got Me Into Films
The best way to get back into feature writing would be to start with what I know: Mediocre movies from my childhood that made me get into films in the first place. Mostly a thing to pass the time and entertain as a kid, I’m looking through the catalogue of what I watched for things that inspired. And, I watched a lot of crap, but I wanted to jump into a writing time machine and visit my younger self as I watched these films for the first few times.
As I’m thinking these thoughts, looking for inspiration to strike me out of nowhere, a bright light from my storage room turns on. Too bright to be anything natural; surely more than your average 60-watt lightbulb. I get up from my recliner in my rented basement, but first grab a pair of scissors. I’m not taking any chances and I’ve seen too many horror movies. The scissors come apart at the middle, so I ungrasp them, and just like that: Two knives, ready for anything.
I turn the doorknob, and the light is blinding. I turn my eyes away from the light, scissor knives still drawn out. The lights then begin to dim, then, entirely normal. I open my eyes, and what I see makes my scissors knives clatter to the floor.
Back to My Childhood Home
I’m not looking at my storage room in 2025 anymore. I’m somehow looking at a hallway from my childhood home, 16 Willow Street (fictional address, friends, I can’t afford stalkers). I step out of my childhood, main level bathroom; the one my aunt painted with inspired patches of shit brown.
I start across the hallway, closet on my left; my mom’s gorgeous deacon’s bench—purchased at a flea market—leaned against the wall straight ahead. Then I turn right, to the main hall. On my left, an unutilized room, a buffer between the front hall and kitchen. It would later be my mom’s office, piles of medical files on the desk. This means I’m sometime before 2006.
I continue down the main hall, past the basement that always spooked me; and then the staircase leading upstairs. Six steps up, platform, turn, then six more steps to the top. Perfect for skipping two by two.
I look into the living room. Blue and grey patterned couches decorate either side of the room. On the floor, seated in neither, is a kid with a goofy looking haircut. Gigantic alfalfa on the back of his head. He’s laying on his stomach in front of a 40-inch TV, DVD case beside him. His movie just started; the opening score bringing a wave of nostalgia.
Daniel: Wow, “Agent Cody Banks.”
The kid belly flop jumps and whips his whole body around to face me.
Young Daniel: Who are you?!
Daniel: I’m as confused as you are, but… What do you know about time travel?
Young Daniel: Mom!
Daniel: No, no, it’s okay! I think I’m you from the future!
I look over at the stairs to make sure no one is coming down… A beat. Nothing. My mom – my past mom? His current mom? – is probably taking an afternoon nap.
Young Daniel: Prove it… What’s mom’s name?
Daniel: Mary Kay!
Young Daniel: Wrong! It’s Mom!
Daniel looks at his younger self with a stunned look.
Daniel: Wow…
Young Daniel looks over at the stairs, too, and starts inhaling… Intending to shout again.
Daniel: Don’t shout! Okay, your brother’s name is Jamie and your Dad’s name is Dad and he has a beard!
Young Daniel: Okay, what’s our first pet’s name?
Daniel: I don’t want to tell you that.
YD: Why not?
D: It’s a common security question, it feels like you’re going to steal my password.
YD: How would I steal it if you’re from the future?
D: The people reading this on the Internet once it’s posted…
YD: You guys still have the Internet?
D: Yeah, we couldn’t live without it!
YD: Okay, if you’re not going to tell me the name of the pet, how did we get him?
D: Her. When Jamie and Dad were at an Ottawa 67’s game, me and Mom went to the pet store to pick up a guinea pig. We gave it a boy name first because we thought it was a boy. We found out after a week it was a girl.
YD: Wow… That’s how we got him, but Chester is a boy!
Fictional name, password hackers.
D: Wait, what year and month is it right now?
YD: October 2003!
D: Okay, so you’re eight years old.
YD: Nine years old in two months, thank you very much.
D: Right…You guys just got her last week. You don’t know that it’s a girl yet… But trust me, I AM you, in the future.
YD: How far from the future? It looks like you’ve got to be from 2050.
D: Wow… I’m 30, and from 2025.
YD: You’re only 30? You look… ancient.
D: I’m told all the time I look younger than I am.
YD: They’re lying.
D: I mean, hey… We still got a lot of time left.
YD: Do you?
D: At least you make it to 30 with all the chicken nuggets you eat.
YD: Touche. Okay, if you are me from the future. What are you doing here?
D: I don’t really know… I was writing and looking for inspiration, and now I’m here.
YD: Wow, we’re a writer?
D: It’s been awhile… But, yeah. We write.
YD: Do we make a lot of money?
D: To be a writer you need to make money… So, no. But, we’re hoping this helps get our spark back. I think I’m meant to come here to watch movies and find my passion for it again.
YD: Oh, cool! So we’ll watch movies and have conversations about them?
D: Yeah and see which scenes you like and which scenes I like, and we can teach each other stuff!
YD: Awesome! And you’ll make me whip smart and much smarter than my young age, therefore using me as a narrator’s tool for entertainment and story purposes?
D: Exactly, now you’re catching on.
YD: Good, because I have no idea what the fuck I just said.
‘Agent Cody Banks‘
YD: I think we should get to the movie now, it’s a lot of introduction.
D: Right, but it’s the first feature of this, we had to take the time to lay the groundwork.
YD: I was watching “Agent Cody Banks”!
D: Oh, I love that movie.
YD: It’s my second time watching it!
D: I haven’t watched it for a couple years but I’ve seen this at least eight times. But let’s you run us through the plot, little me?
YD: Okay, so, Malcolm from “Malcolm in the Middle”—
D: Frankie Muniz.
YD: – plays Cody Banks, a kid who just spent a summer learning to be a CIA agent at a summer camp. He’s been going to high school like normal, waiting for his chance. There’s a doctor, Dr. Connors (Martin Donovan), who’s employed and controlled by this company that gives him a strict deadline to make Nanny bots-
D: Nanobots. Fictional, micromachines that can fix oil spills in minutes instead of years, something that could have an amazing impact on the environment. But they don’t want to use it for that, do they?
YD: No, they want to use it for villainous purposes they’ll tell us vaguely about later. Cody comes into this because the CIA wants him to get close to his daughter, Natalie, played by Hilary Duff.
D: And that’s why you’re watching this.
YD: Frankie Muniz is funny, too! But, yeah. I love her.
D: Okay, let’s start this.
Daniel looks at the DVD cover and back.
D: Wow, I still have this DVD today.
YD: Really? Still in the case and everything?
D: No, I have most of my DVDs in a giant folder, a lot of our DVD cases got ruined.
YD: How?
D: Let’s just say, an evil cat. We’ll get into that story another day.
Note: There will be spoilers for “Agent Cody Banks” throughout their conversation, talking about specific parts of the film.
The film opens with Cody’s mom (Cynthia Stevenson) reminding him to do his chores. Even though he’s a secret agent, he’s still a kid, after all. She says he has to clean up the guinea pig’s excrement, and Cody tries to pawn the chore off to his brother Alex (Connor Widdows) for five bucks. “I know what excrement is,” he says.
YD: What’s excrement?
D: Shit, buddy.
YD: Is Mom going to make me clean up Chester’s poop?
D: Definitely. And she was smelly.
YD: Mom? Or the guinea pig?
D: Chester, dumbass.
The first action scene
In this scene, Cody is on his skateboard on his way to school when a boy’s mother gets out of her car to run an errand. The boy in the car hits the parking brake and the car runs down the steep street, and Cody has to jump into action.
Daniel: Okay, this is an awesome action scene for a kids movie to introduce us to it and show his skills.
Young Daniel: Uh?
D: Fast chase, big action. It’s an enjoyable scene that both ages can enjoy. The stakes are good, but it’s not too intense.
Cody, still trying to catch the car, rides into a construction zone and goes around and round in a construction tunnel.
YD: Whoa!
D: Yeah, that was cool.
YD: That’s my favourite part so far. I bet I could do that!
D: You’re a mathlete, not an athlete, kid. You never even got off the grass with your skateboard.
Eventually, Cody stops the car in time before going on railroad tracks as a train passes by. He makes a quip, and leaves, as the mom comes chasing after the car and people start to gather around.
D: That’s something I didn’t really appreciate as a kid. He does all that work, and doesn’t want any recognition for it. He just leaves, like a superhero. That’s really cool.
YD: Right? And every hero needs their villain.
D: Are you transitioning to something?
Meeting the villains
In our introduction to Dr. Connors, a good guy being coerced into doing bad for his company, he shows his boss his progress of work with nanobots, as they clean an oil spill around a small ship on display.
YD: Cool.
The Big Bad, Brinkman (Ian McShane) asks if the Nanobots can be programmed to eat anything other than oil and gives Connors a deadline of 10 days to program them.
YD: The guy with the weird haircut freaks me out.
D: That’s his henchman Molay (Arnold Vosloo). Have you seen “The Mummy” yet?
YD: No?
D: Ah, he’s freaky in that, too.
YD: Scarier than here?
D: With that haircut? Maybe about the same.
The film transitions from ice cubes filled with Nanobots, to ice cubes rattling in a glass being given to the CIA Director (Keith David).
D: Okay, two things I didn’t notice there as a kid. First, that’s a cool transition.
YD: I’ll just pretend I know what that means.
D: How it takes us seamlessly between two scenes. It’s also such a cool plot detail to show how easily ice cubes could infiltrate a high-security area. Everyone uses ice cubes.
YD: Is that what the villains are planning?
D: I thought you’ve seen this before?
YD: I have the memory of a goldfish, dude.
This scene establishes him as a member of the summer camp-disguised Agent Development Program, and how they’re going to use him to get close to Natalie Connors because he’s a real ladies’ man.
Cody Banks
After striking out with even simply talking to a girl, Cody is taunted by classmates in the boys’ locker room. Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” sounds on the soundtrack as Ronica Miles (Angie Harmon), Cody’s CIA handler, comes in asking for Cody.
YD: Holy boobs.
D: I know…
YD: Does she ever recruit us to join the CIA?
D: No, she doesn’t.
YD: Aw.
D: It’s probably for the best. I think we’d only be fit for a desk job anyway.
YD: Probably better than what you’re doing now.
D: …true.
First time at CIA HQ
Cody gets separated by Miles and is grabbed by security officer Rosychuk (Peter New). Rosychuck is proud for grabbing a trespasser. Here, Keith David scolds him, “You’ve just apprehended the most important kid in America!”
D: I think that’s my earliest memory of Keith David. He’s so cool, even if he doesn’t really even have a character name.
YD: What’s his character’s name?
D: Literally CIA Director.
As everyone gives Cody his mission parameters, he’s also given some gadgets by a team, led by Earl (Darrell Hammond), the equivalent of Q from the James Bond series. This includes a zapping watch, as well as $1,000 in cash.
YD: Okay, we need to get recruited by the CIA. They just GIVE you one thousand dollars?
D: I have a feeling this program wasn’t open to Canadians, buddy.
YD: Fuck.
Bad With Girls
As Cody gets accustomed to his new school and assignment to get closer to Natalie, he’s mostly struck out. The stunned look Cody had when he first saw Natalie, is the same look Younger Daniel had when Duff was first on-screen, too.
Since he’s terrible with girls, the CIA enlists a specialists panel to train him, in a montage.
YD: This is hilarious. They’re all so weird.
D: The meshing of all the characters isn’t living up to how I remember it. It’s still pretty good, they’re all so different that it doesn’t work as well. With the gadget guy, army colonel, rapper, one saying you should smell good, one saying you should embrace your natural smell. This is something that’s still kind-of funny, but funnier for teens.
YD: They’re weird and I like it.
D: Fair.
After Cody is able to make a closer connection with Natalie, he goes to her birthday party on a cliffside, where the bad guys go over their plan with Dr. Connors, revealing their plan to infiltrate the military and destroy their weapons.
YD: Okay, that’s their plan.
D: Do you understand it?
YD: All I know, is they’re bad news and probably have a villain lair, and that’s really all we need to know.
D: Pretty much. Watching it now, it’s a pretty good plan, and the nanobots make it interesting. They just can’t really explain their plan a lot more than that.
YD: Because the kids will get bored?
D: Exactly… Now, speaking of villain lairs, let’s just skip to the end.
The bad guys have kidnapped and brought Natalie to their lair in the mountains… A bit of motivation to keep Dr. Connors on deadline. In the meantime, Cody’s been taken off the case for too publicly putting CIA ass-kicking moves on the bullies at school (led by Noel Fisher, “Shameless”).
Knowing that Natalie’s been kidnapped, Cody steals a CIA car and goes to the mountains to rescue her. Cody races away from goons on Skidoos, and falls into a tree. Hanging out for awhile, Ronica finds him and saves Cody. She’s not here to bring him home; she’s here to help him save Natalie.
They enter the giant warehouse in the side of a mountain, everything is high-tech and looks neat, especially for a movie geared towards younger teens.
YD: Whoa. This looks so cool.
D: Honestly, yeah. It really does. The set design’s kind-of impressive.
YD: What’s that?
D: Pretty much changing this location to believably look like a villain’s lair.
Soon, Cody and Veronica are apprehended as they try to rescue Natalie from a weird prisoner beehive. Cody manages to get away, and Brinkman threatens Dr. Connors by holding a Nanobot ice cube to Natalie’s face, Cody speaks up as he’s standing on top of a giant arc.
YD: Why is he up there? He could have done this from the ground?
D: Right…
Cody has found a very convenient gadget with a self-destruct button. He presses the button, and the 5-minute timer starts triggering small explosions throughout the warehouse.
D: Oh, I really remember this part! First, Natalie does a weird somersault… And then she grabs a Nanobot ice cube. Brinkman’s shouting with whole soul at his crumbling empire and BOOM… Nanobot ice cube down the throat!
YD: That’s not good…
Molay comes over and tries to help his boss, trying to almost reverse the Nanobots with a little gadget he points at Brinkman… but nothing can reverse this course. Brinkman falls to the ground, his face and throat starting to melt into a mess of CGI.
YD: Whoa… I can see why you still remember it.
D: Right? It’s like watching the face melting Nazis in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” but for a kids’ movie… and way more tame… and less Nazi-ish.
YD: That happens in that movie, too?
D: Yeah! But even better!
After the movie
D: Okay, did you have any favourite parts we didn’t talk about?
YD: When Alex covers for Cody and the parents go to check on him, and Alex has to keep playing the recording of him saying, “I guess,” and his mom almost catches him. That part’s funny.
D: Yeah, I like that part, too. Anything you didn’t really like?
YD: Not really! It’s Hilary Duff and easy-to-follow action. What’s not to like?
D: That’s true, it’s good mindless entertainment. And Frankie Muniz does some of his own stunts, too!
YD: He does?
D: Yeah!
YD: Okay, the most important question. What did you think of Hilary Duff?
D: She did a good job but she didn’t have a lot to do. Especially compared to Muniz, she held her own as the damsel in distress. But not really great in comparison.
YD: I think you should leave.
D: Sorry… but you’re right, I should get back. Maybe I’ll come back for the second movie?
YD: THEY MADE A SECOND ONE?
D: Yeah! This time they go to London!
YD: Whoa! Okay, yeah! We’ll watch that! Frankie Muniz and Hilary Duff back in action!
D: …yeah. Both… Definitely… I’ll come back and we’ll watch it!
YD: Awesome.
I start to walk back up the hall.
D: [to myself]We’ll cross that ‘no Hilary Duff in the sequel’ bridge next year…
I walk back into the bathroom, the light once again brightened on this side, and step back into 2025.
Look for more of “Flashback Friday” experiences in the coming weeks.
