The espionage genre had been turned on its head at the turn of the millennium, with the disappointing reception to Die Another Day raising questions about the long-term viability of the James Bond franchise, especially when 24‘s Jack Bauer and Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne had emerged to drag the spy story into the 21st Century.
Not to be forgotten, of course, Frankie Muniz’s Agent Cody Banks arrived on the scene in March 2003, and proved surprisingly popular. Not only did the kid-friendly caper earn close to $60 million at the box office on a budget of under $30 million, but it would go on to become a staple of home viewing after the fact, cultivating a decent-sized audience in the process.
Desperately trying to strike while the iron is hot, a sequel was rushed into development and production so quickly that second installment Destination London was unleashed in theaters a mere 363 days after its predecessor. That’s a hell of a turnaround, almost suspiciously so, which turned out to be an accurate assumption when the second chapter was both panned and flopped.
Not only did Destination London earn almost 50 percent less than its predecessor from theaters, but a 14 percent Rotten Tomatoes score underscored that rushing a project through to the finish line as fast as humanly possible isn’t always a wise idea, or even a remotely smart one.
However, 18 years later, and Agent Cody Banks has surprisingly risen from the depths to crack another case. As per FlixPatrol, Destination London has made a surprising dent on the iTunes global most-watched, which isn’t something we had on our 2022 bingo card. Reboot, anyone?