Film Reviews & Cinema Experience – ‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’, ‘Casebusters’ & ‘Toy Story’ (Disney 100)

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

This isn’t a Disney+ Roundup. This is me sharing my thoughts on three films that I’ve seen recently on Netflix, Disney+ and at the cinema respectively. I saw these three films towards the end of September. They’ve been interesting in their own way and enjoyable to check out when I saw them.

On Netflix, I saw the fifth instalment of the ‘Spy Kids’ film series called ‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’. This film is directed by Robert Rodriegeuz, whom he co-wrote with one of his sons, Racer Max. I enjoyed ‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’, as I found it better than the fourth film ‘Spy Kids: All the Time in the World’.

The storyline is good enough to enjoy and it isn’t too silly like ‘All the Time in the World’ is. Arguably, the plot echoes a lot of similarities from the first ‘Spy Kids’ film, but it’s decent enough and it’s very interesting how Robert Rodrigeuz attempts the ‘next generation’ of ‘Spy Kids’ again with new actors.

Instead of Carmen and Juni, we have Connor Esterson as Tony and Everly Carganilla as Patty. Their parents are Gina Rodrigeuz as Nora and Zachary Levi (who’s in the ‘Shazam’ movies – I didn’t know it was him until the end) as Terrence. 😀 The performances of the cast are quite well done in the film. 🙂

It would have been nice if Alexa Vega and Darryl Sabara made cameos as Carmen and Juni in the film, but then again, they did appear in the previous film. If another ‘Spy Kids’ film gets made with Tony and Patty, Carmen and Juni could return, along with Rebecca and Cecil from the fourth film. 😀

There are also video game elements featured throughout ‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’, which put me in mind of ‘Spy Kids 3D: Game Over’. The film also features D. J. Cotrona as Devlin and Billy Magnussen as the King. Overall, ‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’ is a decent and enjoyable flick to check out on Netflix. 🙂

On Disney+, my parents and I checked out ‘Casebusters’. This happens to be a 45-minute TV movie, which was shown in 1986 as part of ‘The Magical World of Disney’. Or is it ‘The Disney Sunday Movie’ series? 😐 The film stars Pat Hingle (Commissioner Gordon in the ‘Batman’ films). So unusual.

It was nice to check out Pat Hingle in a different role compared to what I’d seen him in as Commissioner Gordon in the ‘Batman’ films. In ‘Casebusters’, he plays Sam Donahue, a former police officer who runs a security business. He’s helped by his grandchildren who become amateur sleuths.

The grandchildren include Noah Hatahway as Jamie and Virginia Keehne as Allie. They’re also helped by Gary Riley as Ski. Ski starts off as a thief before he helps Jamie, Allie and their grandfather when they stumble upon a major case where a presumably married couple are attempting a bank heist. 😮

From watching this TV film, this does have the makings of being a pilot for a TV series. If that is the case, it’s a pity it never got followed up. It would’ve been interesting to see a TV series called ‘Casebusters’ starring Pat Hingle as the grandfather, his grandchildren, their friend Ski and their dog.

The film also features a brief cameo of Tim Russ as a police officer called Dixon. This is before Tim Russ appeared in ‘Star Trek’ productions like ‘Star Trek: Generations’ and as Tuvok in the ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ TV series. I enjoyed ‘Casebusters’. It’s a very nice little TV film that should’ve had its own TV series.

At the cinema, there was a re-release of the 1995 film ‘Toy Story’, as part of the Disney 100 film season of re-releases at cinemas in the UK. I revisited ‘Toy Story’ at my local Showcase Cinema in Nantgarw. It was lovely to see the first film again on the big screen to celebrate 100 years of Disney.

100 years is an incredible achievement for a film company like Disney. They’re having their own centenary in 2023 like the BBC had theirs in 2022. It’s fair to say that ‘Toy Story 2’ is my favourite out of the ‘Toy Story’ film series. But that film would never have happened if it wasn’t for the first film. 🙂

It’s not hard to see why the first ‘Toy Story’ film was selected in the UK’s Disney 100 film season at cinemas lately. It’s such a landmark for being the first full-length Disney/Pixar film. I have fond memories watching the first ‘Toy Story’ film when I was a kid in 1995. It had such a ‘buzz’ back then.

No pun intended by the way. 😀 The story of Woody and Buzz Lightyear becoming friends and Woody trying to convince Buzz that he’s a toy and not a space ranger is such a classic. More films have been made since then, but there’s no denying the first ‘Toy Story’ film is special for many people. 🙂

Tom Hanks and Tim Allen deserve praise for giving their voices to Woody and Buzz, as well as the Pixar team who put together the incredible CGI animation from beginning to end. It’s also nice to hear the original songs by Randy Newman, including ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’, which is well-loved.

The latest films I’ve seen have been very enjoyable. ‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’ is an entertaining instalment in the ‘Spy Kids’ film series and an improvement over the fourth film. ‘Casebusters’ is a nice detective TV film for kids, and I’m very glad I revisited the first ‘Toy Story’ film for Disney @ 100.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂