Blu-ray Review: Spy Kids: All the Time in the World

It's been almost a decade since Robert Rodriquez seemed to conclude his Spy Kids trilogy with Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, with the stories of Juni and Carmen Cortez (Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega) reaching their conclusion in a star-studded adventure presented in crude anaglyphic 3-D - pre-dating the current craze. Yet following the recent Avatar-led 3D boom, the series has returned for a fourth time, the result being Spy Kids: All the Time in the World - marketed as the first "4D" film, with scratch and sniff cards (dubbed "aroma-scope") providing the fourth dimension. However the fourth dimension is not smell at all but time - and that is what the film is all about: how little time we have, how precious it is and what we should really do with it. With the old spy kids all grown up it's time for Rodriquez to introduce a new pre-teen crime-fighting double-act, with twins Cecil and Rebecca Wilson (played by Mason Cook and Rowan Blanchard) called into action shortly after discovering that Marissa, their step-mum played by Jessica Alba, is in fact a spy. They also find that their faithful dog is actually a gadget-laden robot voiced by Ricky Gervais, ostensibly assigned to protect them at all costs though his real role is as a wise-cracking comedy sidekick. The film begins with a brilliantly playful sequence in which a heavily pregnant Marissa takes on her final mission as her water breaks - nabbing her time-altering foe Tick Tock (Jeremy Piven) before retiring from the secret agent racket to raise her newborn baby girl. But when that old nemesis escapes prison and seeks to destroy the world by ending time itself, Marissa is brought back into the fold by her old boss - also played Piven. Piven clearly relishes this dual role, delivering his pun-heavy dialogue with hilarious faux sincerity. He approaches this gig with the same enthusiasm that saw the likes of Stallone, Clooney and Buscemi provide such entertaining turns in the original trilogy and the effect is equally winsome. The now-adult Sabara and Vega return to provide some welcome continuity, with props and even clips of previous entries used to fun effect, whilst Sabara's deadpan, hi-octane entrance is the film's clear highlight, but with a new family the focus of this instalment is the relationship between Marissa and the kids. The grumpy, practical joke obsessed Rebecca, who mourns her late mother, resents Marissa for marrying her father (Joel McHale) - a fame-obsessed television spy hunter who is oblivious to his partner's secret identity - and it's her late recognition that family is about loving one another rather than just blood which is the heart of the film. Yes, the good-natured, joyously naive spirit of those first films remains intact here, as does the franchise's penchant for earnest, if slightly heavy-handed, moralising about the importance of family. And though Mason and Blanchard never quite recreate the chemistry of the original kids, it's difficult to watch the movie without a smile on your face. Rodriquez admirably continues his own Miyazaki-esque trend for humanising the major bad guys, whilst his decision to give Cecil a hearing aid - which he repeatedly uses to his advantage - reinforces the overall positive vibe. It's often difficult to imagine how something so faultlessly good natured could come from the director of Sin City. Not only do Rodriquez's children's films not talk down to the intended young audience but they don't talk over them with cynical "lines for the grown-ups" either. The Spy Kids films are aimed squarely and proudly at children with next to no concession for the accompanying parents. That's not to say adults can't enjoy it, but to do so you have to connect with your inner child. It's an imaginative, wish-fulfilment fantasy and, when I saw it at the cinema earlier this year, the film was packed with kids who howled with delight whenever a baby farted or Gervais' comedy dog made a sarcastic observation. Rodriguez knows this audience and delivers exactly what they want, with even the scratch and sniff gimmick (and I'm sure the director would admit it's exactly that) going down a storm with youngsters who duly groaned on cue when asked to smell something nasty by each garish on-screen prompt. It would seem somewhat churlish to point out that all eight fragrances smell the same: it's hardly the point. Even the slightly dated DIY CGI that has become emblematic of Rodriquez's campy house style and the weightless, threat-less fight scenes (which play like something out of TVs slapstick Lazy Town rather than El Mariachi) add to the atmosphere of a movie that really is just innocent, imaginative fun in the best possible sense. The bad guys here fly backwards when punched in that same exaggerated way that you might if miming that a toddler is stronger than you, and it's all part of the fun. The first two films are better (though this outdoes the third), the scenes following Joel McHale's dad character (as host of TV show "Spy Hunter") feel out of place and fall completely flat, whilst toilet humour reins supreme, but the Spy Kids movies are still among the best live action films that cater specifically to children.

Extras

Around 40 minutes of special features are to be found on this Blu-ray, including a 7 minute interview with Rodriguez as conducted by a little girl. It's actually a pretty good interview which goes beyond the surface gimmick as the director answers questions kids would actually be interested in. It's an unusual interview which focusses primarily on Rodriguez own childhood and his relationship with this material - as one of ten siblings and a father of five. Hearing him talk about the various gadgets and the family moralising so enthusiastically confirms that this is an entirely sincere and deeply personal project, rather than an odd career diversion. There's also around 8 minutes worth of interviews with the four spy kids - old and new - as they talk about their experiences on the movies. Called "Passing the Torch" it's an oddly appropriate feature on a film about the passing of time, as Sabara and Vega discuss getting older and looking back, whilst the current stars have their minds in the present. This is also evident in a 5 minute video diary made by Blanchard and Cook, who excitedly show us around the set of the movie. There are two features about Argonaut - the Gervais-voiced canine character - both lasting about 4 minutes. The first is about the animal actor on set and the various cast members interactions with him, as well as thoughts on the character. The second is an interview with the British comedian as he talks about the role and his admiration of Rodriquez, with some clips of the actor in the recording booth reading his dialogue and ad-libbing freely. Just under 10 minutes of deleted scenes also feature. These are unusual in that post-production seems to have been completed on all of them, with CGI shots figuring prominently. However it is easy to see why each was cut, with the final film already on the wrong side of two hours. One potentially significant sequence which didn't make it shows both kids having problems at school - with the scene establishing Cecil's hearing aid, his heightened sense of smell and his intelligence, whilst also showing Rebecca's fondness and aptitude for troublesome, if creative, pranks. However all of this information is later worked into the film through dialogue in the very next scene in a way which is much more economical. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World is out on DVD and Blu-ray 3D today.