Agent Cody Banks 2—Destination London

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Agent Cody Banks 2—Destination London's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Agent Cody Banks 2—Destination London completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 19 March 2004.

Overall comments and recommendations

Agent Cody goes to London on another mission to save the world from evil. The violence in this second movie is toned down and more contrived than the first Agent Cody Banks movie and no-one gets seriously hurt or injured. However, the plot is rather thin and the method of taking over the minds of others by spraying anaesthesia from a can and then implanting a microchip in a dental filling is very simplistic. Nonetheless the movie would probably be quite entertaining for older children and the adolescent age groups.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Agent Cody Banks 2—Destination London contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Agent Cody Banks is on Summer Camp which is in reality a CIA youth training camp, when it is attacked by men trying to capture the Commander in Chief, Victor Diaz. Banks helps him get away but is then informed that Diaz has stolen the software for a mind control programme which he intends to unleash on the world for his own evil purposes. Young Cody is given the task of retrieving the software and his mission takes him to London where he is sent undercover as a clarinet player in a youth orchestra. The music school in which he is enrolled is run by Lady Kenworth, wife of Lord Kenworth who originally wrote the software. Diaz intends to team up with Kenworth to take over the world.

Cody is assisted in his task by Derek another CIA operative who becomes employed at the music school as a chef and cooks up some interesting meals. Derek takes Cody to the London Dungeon where he is kitted out for his secret service with interesting gadgets, including a tube of Mentos which are really explosives. Meanwhile Diaz and Kenworth, with the aid of a mad dentist, have already begun their mind control programme by anaesthetising their first victim and implanting a microchip inside a dental filling. Cody manages to track down the place where this is happening but is set upon by Diaz, kidnapped and anaesthetised himself.

It seems as though the villains are winning as they manage to take over the Prime Minister and the director of the CIA but Derek comes to the rescue together with another unexpected source of help.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is quite a bit of violence in this movie; however it is toned down from the first movie and most of the fight scenes are quite contrived with no-one getting particularly hurt. The following violent scenes appear:

• At summer camp Cody is on a training mission when he is attacked by a soldier that he has to fight off; he karate kicks two more soldiers in his path.
• Helicopters arrive in the night and the camp is raided by soldiers – the children try to defend the camp. A boy is almost hit by a pole.
• Diaz is armed with a bazooka type weapon which he fires at Cody but misses, however he blows up a car and a building.
• There is a karate fight scene between Diaz and Cody.
• Derek elbows Cody in the face to knock him out. He then puts a Mentos explosive into his mouth to blow out the implanted microchip.
• Santiago (the dentist) and Emily (one of the music students) karate fight.
• The CIA director gets punched out.
• Diaz attacks Cody in the gift room of Buckingham Palace with a mace; Cody falls to the ground and swords fall all around him.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group would be frightened by the above scenes and by the following:

• Diaz is threatening and intimidating
• The London Dungeon is very scary with skeletons, gruesome sights and screams. The nutty man who provides Cody with his secret weapons is also quite scary.
• Lord Kenworth shows Diaz his dog which he can control; the dog has a metallic probe on its head.
• Derek stuffs a live lobster into an alarm to stop it ringing.
• Cody is climbing up an elevator shaft when the car starts to travel down on top of him. He manages to squeeze to the side of it.
• Santiago the mad dentist is quite scary.
• Cody is rendered unconscious and wakes up to see the three men peering down at him having implanted a microchip into his tooth.

Over the age of eight

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children over the age of eight would probably not be scared by this movie as they would realise it’s not real. Some younger children in this age group may still need parental guidance.

Product placement

Research shows that children, particularly children under the age of eight, are vulnerable to product placement in movies. Even if the child doesn’t recall seeing a particular brand in a movie, if offered a choice, they will choose the brand they have just seen, in preference to another brand that was not displayed. This effect may be exacerbated if the product is highlighted as part of the story or if an actor or character they admire is seen to endorse or enjoy the product.

The following products were displayed or used in this movie:

• Mentos
• Pepsi
• Heinz tomato ‘ketchup’.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity.

Use of substances

There is some smoking of cigars. Lady Kenworth says she’s taken some cold medicine and now is “completely pickled”.

Coarse language

There is little coarse language with occasional use of arse and bleeding.

The movie's message

The take home message is that good once more triumphs over evil.

Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• equal gender roles

Values parents may wish to discourage include:

• Violence as a way to solve conflict