Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)

Josh Gilchrist's review of "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" Score= 63/100 * * 1/2 STARRING: Daryl Sabara, Ricardo Montalban, Sylvester Stallone, Alexa Vega, Selma Hayek DIRECTED AND WRITTEN BY Robert Rodriguez 89 MINUTES MPAA RATING PG for action sequences and peril

Robert Rodriguez's imagination went into overdrive with the "Spy Kids" franchise. Here was a well respected filmmaker who was putting his career on hold to create something out of the ordinary, a family film franchise. In my review of the original "Spy Kids" back in March of 2001, I praised the film for strengthening creativity in children and showcasing a great moral about the importance of family.

The third, and supposedly the final, film in the franchise, "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" is now in theaters, complete with it's own gimmick, the first major 3-D release in twenty years. This automatically made me apprehensive. I'm a fan of 3-D films but I the problem was that the film needed this kind of a gimmick to hook an audience. Once an example of creativity, "Spy Kids" has now run out of ideas and needs a ploy to keep it alive.

Also gone is the focus on family, the focus now is almost entirely on the adventures of young Juni (Daryl Sabara), recruited by the spy agency to rescue his sister Carmen (Alexa Vega) from inside a video game titled 'Game Over.' The game has been devised by the Toymaker (Sylvestor Stallone, hamming it up in three different roles) who plans to use the game to take over the world. The kids who play the game will never escape, therefore Juni has only 12 hours to rescue his sister and stop the children of the world from playing it.

The film is lackluster because most of the stars of the other two films are back, but only in bit parts. Antonio Banderas is back as the father but is onscreen for about five minutes. The character the film concentrates upon most is the least appealing of the bunch. Juni is neither interesting nor confident enough to make a good hero.

I did take solace in the fact that Ricardo Montalban's character of Grandfather is on full display. This is the only honest performance in the film, brimming with wit and humor. Sadly, that's the only wit and humor in the entire film.

Are the 3-D effects impressive? Not really. I have fond memories of watching cheesy films like "The Mask," the 1961 film with Paul Stevens not the Jim Carrey film. The problem is that the technology of 3-D hasn't improved. I've seen older 3-D films which used the gimmick better than this film. To add insult to injury, the film concentrates on using images that will benefit from this lackluster 3-D imagery. That's antithetical of creativity and ideas are squandered.

Is the film fun? Yes, for children I'm positive it is. There are even enough parts to make parents laugh. But, when you think of the children, what are they taking away from this film? It's depressing to see that one of the few franchises built on teaching lessons is now just a summer popcorn movie. Nothing more. Nothing less.

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X-Language: en
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X-RT-TitleID: 1124158
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X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/4