Spy Kids: All the Time in the World arrived in theaters at the tail end of the 2011 summer season, attempting to revive a highly lucrative franchise that had been dormant for eight years. Beginning in 2001, Robert Rodriguez wrote and directed one Spy Kids movie each year for three years. The original trilogy, produced on a relatively modest budget, grossed over three-hundred million dollars. Ultimately, a new generation of kids did not embrace Spy Kids, as the new film’s total domestic gross barely topped the third film’s opening weekend. Perhaps this moderately entertaining time-passer will find a wider audience on home video.
In the fourth installment, the original adult stars Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino are gone but their kids – Carmen and Juni – are present in supporting roles. The plot is rather convoluted in a sort of sub-Doctor Who kind of way. The Timekeeper has found a way to steal time – literally making time speed up, with days going by faster and faster. Marissa Wilson (Jessica Alba) is a former spy called back into action to solve the mystery. Marissa retired after the birth of her child, fathered by her husband Wilbur (Joel McHale). Wilbur already had two kids – Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil (Mason Cook) – and they both despise their new stepmother. Wilbur hosts a spy-hunting reality television show, utterly clueless about his wife’s true background and line of work.
Soon enough, Rebecca and Cecil gain a newfound respect for their stepmom after figuring out that she is a spy. With the help of Argonaut, a robotic dog (voiced by Ricky Gervais), the two siblings join their mother in the fight to stop the Timekeeper. They get some much needed assistance from Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara), now young adults, who turn up late in the film. Their presence will be welcomed by longtime Spy Kids fans, which keeps All the Time in the World from being a reboot. Regardless, this may the end of the line for the series. Critics were merciless in bashing the film, but it’s kind of hard to see why. While mired in fart and puke jokes, the film should be very entertaining for its target audience: the ten and under crowd. The earlier Spy Kids films held more appeal as family viewing, but the new one is a painless and brief experience, loaded with imagination.
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