AGENT CODY BANKS (12A)

CODY Banks (Muniz) looks and behaves like your average American teenager - accomplished at school, passionate about skateboards, and painfully shy around girls.

However, Cody harbours a dark secret - he is actually part of a top secret CIA young agent programme, operating under the aegis of his sexy handler, Ronica Miles (Harmon).

When a scientist, Dr Connors (Donovan) threatens world peace with his amazing invention of a nanobot army for megalomaniac Brinkman (McShane), Cody is sent undercover to befriend Connor's daughter Natalie (Duff) and use her to get close to her father.

Unfortunately, Cody arouses the suspicions of Brinkman and his evil henchman Molay (Vosloo), who suspect that Cody might be a CIA agent in their midst.

When Dr Connors refuses to go through with Brinkman's dastardly scheme, the megalomaniac holds Natalie hostage, and so it's up to Cody and Ronica to save the day - and the girl - using their intellect and a fine assortment of nifty gizmos.

Agent Cody Banks is an entertaining and light-hearted variation on a theme of Spy Kids, casting Malcolm In The Middle star Muniz as the pre-pubescent James Bond wannabe, whose determination, good humour and pluck invariably wins the day.

It's a winning combination and the affable young actor is incredibly likeable and appealing, blundering through certain sections of his mission as he desperately attempts to put his training into practice.

The chemistry with Harmon's sexy handler is nicely judged - part motherly, part flirtatious - established in a great scene where Ronica strides into the boys' high school locker room and rebuffs all of the cocksure blonde jocks in favour of weakling Cody. She spends the rest of the film slipping into a series of figure-hugging catsuits, until the explosive finale, where she finally proves that Ronica is so much more than a pretty face. Muniz gels nicely with Duff and McShane and Vosloo are nicely camp as the villains with world domination on their mind.

The action sequences are briskly paced with unobtrusive use of computer generated special effects to ensure plenty of thrills and spills.

Agent Cody Banks is clean, undemanding fun with a keen understanding of its teen audience and the odd knowing wink for adults too.