Director Robert Rodriguez has a schizophrenic body of work. On the one hand is the crazy, adult exploitation films like From Dusk Till Dawn, Machete and Desperado (which I love). On the other hand he has his crazy family features like Shorts, Shark Boy & Lava Girl and Spy Kids (which I Don't love). He's now returned to the family franchise which has given him the greatest success with Spy Kids 4 - All The Time In The World and produced one of his better mass appeal films in the process.
Following in the footsteps of Star Trek, Tron Legacy and X-Men First Class by being both a remake AND a reboot acknowledging the existence of earlier stories in the franchise, Spy Kids 4 introduces yet another spy family with sexy stepmom Jessica Alba as the head of the household. From then on Rodriguez chucks everything at his audience including gadgets, chases, masked villains, double crosses, talking robot dogs (voiced amusingly by the droll Ricky Gervais) underground hidden bases, original trilogy cameos, dysfunctional family bickering and more CGI then the human mind conceive of. The script is pretty up together balancing the end-of-the-world plot with the intimate family drama at the heart of the tale while delivering everything at twice the speed of sound.
Fast, fun, and more likable than most kids stuff as it's aimed at the cheekier more rebellious end of the pre-teen market, Spy Kids 4 is the second best of the series after the first film. That's perhaps due to Jessica Alba in a catsuit, but I'd still rather have the gore, guns and slutiness of Machete thanks very much.
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