Director: Robert Rodriguez.
Starring: Jessica Alba, Joel McHale, Jeremy Piven, Ricky Gervais, Rowan Blanchard, Mason Cook.
Certificate: PG Running Time: 89 minutes.
Synopsis: A retired spy is called back into action, and to bond with her new step-children, she invites them along for the adventure to stop the evil Timekeeper from taking over the world.
As a director Robert Rodriguez is strange one, it always seems as if he has a split personality, his films like EL MARIACHI, DESPERADO and the genre bending FROM DUSK TIL DAWN while not being masterpieces require repeat viewing as they are so hugely enjoyable. His best film by far SIN CITY is still regarded as the greatest attempt at transfering a comic book to screen form and is certainly a groundbreaking masterpiece in modern cinema. It is in his attempts at making films for a younger audience where he trips himself up. It is well known that he makes these films with his own children in mind and even with the help of their own imagination, the characters in THE ADVENTURES OF SHARK BOY AND LAVA GIRL were his children’s own creation, but there are times when I see the end result of these films and I just have to shake my head and not in the positive way.
In a new change to the previous three films, Jessica Alba takes over the mother role as retired spy, yes really!, who decides that in order to get closer to her newly acquired step-children (Mason Cook and Rowan Blanchard) she should have them accompany her and her new husband (Joel McHale) on a dangerous mission to foil the exploits of the evil genius Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven) and his plans for the tiresome world domination premise, not so great parenting I’m sure your thinking but it is a SPY KIDS movie and to integrate the new cast into that universe certain members of the previous films join them to move the story along to reach its thankful conclusion. The cast do their best with the material they are given but the plot does come across as lazy and uninteresting, featuring special effects that are more cartoonish than spectacular, even Ricky Gervais’ voice work as the family’s talking dog Argonaut fails to raise many smiles. The previous SPY KIDS films were never great but they were aimed at a certain age group that lapped them up on their release, what doesn’t make sense is that fans of the original films would now surely be in their late teens and now a lot wiser, if they are even still interested since the last movie SPY KIDS 3D: GAME OVER was released eight years ago.
You have to give Rodriguez credit for convincing the likes of the acting quality or star power as Antonio Banderas, Sylvester Stallone, Steve Buscemi, Carla Gugino and now Alba and Piven to appear in this set of films along with series regulars Danny Trejo and Cheech Marin at the risk of their reputation and of the critical mauling this franchise usually receives but having worked with most of them in his previous films they obviously trust and enjoy working with him.
As for the forth dimension gimmick the film is pushing in its Aroma-scope advertising campaign, not just the faint whiff of something unpleasant but a strong one. As the sub title of the film says ‘All the time in the world?, not me 89 minutes I’m unable to claw back. Avoid.
