Rebecka (Blanchard) and Cecil (Cook) don’t seem to have much luck with their family at first glance. Their dad is a jerk who hosts a strange TV show, their mom is dead, and their stepmother, despite being the beautiful Jessica Alba, is still just an outsider. However, armed terrorists seeking to destroy the world help them see family values from a different perspective. In the fight against them, it turns out that their stepmother is a top-notch spy, and Rebecka’s pendant hides a substance capable of saving everyone.
After the previous Spy Kids grew up, Robert Rodriguez returned to adult (if you can call “Machete” (2010) adult) cinema for a long time. But when it was time to reboot the franchise, he still got greedy and continued to direct himself, although he could have limited himself to producing. Apparently, he is still drawn to this children’s world, where dogs talk, spy cars have ridiculous retractable wheels, and the main villain is angry because he didn’t finish talking to his father.
Danny Trejo can be spotted among the OSS agents.
Jessica Alba had previously worked with Rodriguez on “Machete” and “Sin City” (2005).
The 4D Experience: A Gimmick or Genuine Immersion?
The title is not misleading; the film really tries to appeal to our sense of smell. However, the extent to which rubbing and sniffing a special paper contributes to immersion in the movie is a big question. Especially since the audience performs the above procedures synchronously, noisily, and with appropriate comments each time. And not everyone will be curious enough to bring the cherished device to their nose when someone farts on the screen. And the characters allow themselves such indecent gestures more than once, as well as throwing dirty diapers and even air-to-air combat packages with vomit.
A New Generation of Spy Kids
The new kids, Rowan Blanchard and Mason Cook, turn out to be no better, but no worse, than Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara, who, by the way, were also given small roles here. The setup is the same – girls are talkative, boys are unmotivated, and parents are always too much. Rodriguez didn’t reinvent the wheel, wisely deciding that the “Spy Kids” universe had long acquired a complete look and even some tradition. By drawing a couple of ingenious mechanisms on the computer that rotate in all three dimensions, and sticking another funny absurdity on the villains’ heads (this time – clock faces), he tells his tale of lost time without violating the once-created coordinate system. It turns out as before – sometimes dashing, but more often stupid and sentimental. Children may like it.