VIDEO CUT FROM COMMON CLOTH BOTH 'SPY KIDS,' 'TAILOR OF PANAMA' DEAL WITH BIZARRE WORLD OF ESPIONAGE.

Films about spies may be the last thing on anyone's mind at the moment, but, when you're in the mood, ``Spy Kids'' and ``The Tailor of Panama'' - just out on DVD and video - are more than worth the time.

``Spy Kids'' was an unexpected hit last spring. Who would have guessed that Robert Rodriguez, the director-writer of such violent films as ``El Mariachi,'' ``Desperado,'' ``From Dusk Till Dawn'' and ``The Faculty,'' would have such a light, fun touch and make a film for the whole family?

The film begins with a favorite bedtime story that Carmen (Alexa Vega) asks her mother, Ingrid (Carla Gugino), to tell. It's about two expert spies from different sides who are assigned to track each other but instead fall in love and after several covert meetings decide to embark on the greatest adventure of all - marriage and children.

As the story is told we see that the characters are really Ingrid and her husband, Gregorio (Antonio Banderas), but Carmen and her little brother, Juni (Daryl Sabara), can't imagine their parents are cool enough to have ever been spies.

When other agents start disappearing, Ingrid and Gregorio are asked to come out of retirement (they make their living as consultants). Having a bit of cabin fever, the couple jump at the chance to go back in the field, but the invitation turns out to be a trap. The children are left with their Uncle Felix (Cheech Marin), but ``thumb people'' (you have to see them) created by Floop (Alan Cumming), the host of Juni's favorite children's television show, try to abduct them. Carmen and Juni escape, though, and start an adventure to save their parents.

Rodriguez reportedly made ``Spy Kids'' so his own children could see a film he made. And you get the feeling that the writer-director actually spends time with his kids because he has created a movie whiz-bang enough to entertain children (and adults) without resorting to bathroom humor or stupid over-the-top special effects that leave viewers cold or confused. (See ``Cats and Dogs'' for an example of how not to make a kids movie.)

``Spy Kids'' has a spoofy, jokey style. Floop, for instance, comes across a little more twisted Willy Wonka (and Roald Dahl's character was already a bit twisted) and the characters that populate his TV show (which is only No. 2, much to his consternation) give it a junior Salvador Dali look. But Rodriguez doesn't push any of that, focusing instead on entertaining children while making it interesting for adults. ``Spy Kids 2'' is in the works, and we can only be heartened, considering that Rodriguez's film is one of the few in the last year that's really for kids.

The CIA is never mentioned in ``Spy Kids'' but it plays a role in ``The Tailor of Panama,'' John Boorman's crafty adaptation of John le Carre's novel of the same name. Espionage novels and movies have their conventions - especially during the Cold War - and ``Tailor'' turns them inside out, beginning with Andy Osnard (Pierce Brosnan), the disgraced British agent exiled to Panama to ostensibly keep out of sight.

But Osnard seems to have a need to get into trouble, and he finds it by recruiting Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), tailor to Panama's men of power. Harry, as it turns out, has his own secret to hide - instead of being suitmaker from Savile Row, he's an ex-convict who learned his trade in prison. Now with an American wife, Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis), a consultant to the Panamanian government, as well as two children, he is loathe to let anything destroy his life. He is also feeling guilty about having been the tailor for Noriega, the former Panamanian leader, while his friends - Marta (Leonor Varela) and Mickie Abraxas (Brendan Gleeson) - suffered for opposing the dictator.

Making him an easier mark for Osnard is the fact that Harry is in debt, having put Louisa's inheritance into a farm that's not producing. Pushed by Osnard to come up with some tangible information that will get the spy back in good graces, Harry begins to invent a tangled conspiracy about a silent opposition and secret plans to sell the Panama Canal. When his spymasters don't believe him, Osnard pushes Harry to snoop on his wife. Eventually, the conspiracy - invented solely by Harry, a man who reinvented himself - takes on a life of its own.

``I can't,'' Harry tells his dead Uncle Benny (Harold Pinter), when the imaginary character warns him that he's gone too far and he must stop lying.

Osnard is a sleazy, cynical James Bond (that other spy character Brosnan plays). Whereas for Bond espionage is like a game played for moral and ethical reasons, Osnard just plays the game for what he can get - with no worries about who gets hurt.

``The Tailor of Panama'' reflects a post-Cold War world of murky allegiances. Last weeks' events may change the type of spy films that get made, but Boorman's film, with its dark humor, stands as a good example of how to make a spy movie without falling into cliches.

``Spy Kids'' (Dimension) is $24.99 on VHS and $29.99 on DVD. ``The Tailor of Panama'' (Columbia) is $24.95 on DVD and includes commentary by Boorman, a conversation with Brosnan and Rush and an alternate ending with optional commentary. It's priced for rental on VHS.

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Photo:

(1) Jamie Lee Curtis, front, has her suspicions about unscrupulous spy Pierce Brosnan in ``The Tailor of Panama,'' an adaptation of John le Carre's novel also starring Geoffrey Rush.

(2) Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega are the ``Spy Kids'' in Robert Rodriguez' enjoyable adventure.