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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
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  out of 4
| *Also starring: | Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Sylvester Stallone, Bobby Edner, Ricardo Montalban, Holland Taylor, Danny Trejo, Robert Vito, Matthew O'Leary, Alan Cumming, George Clooney |
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 Review by Susan Granger 2 stars out of 4
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The third installment in Robert Rodriguez' successful "Spy Kids" franchise
has three strikes against it: a) the once-adorable "kids" are growing up, b) the
'50s style blue-and-red style cardboard 3-D glasses are a pain, and c) there's
too much blatant computer-game merchandising.
As the story begins, the no-longer-cherubic, 11 year-old secret agent Juni
Cortez (Daryl Sabara) is recruited from 'retirement' by OSS leaders (Salma
Heyek, Mike Judge) and the President of the United States (George Clooney).
Juni's assignment is penetrate the highest level of a mysteriously menacing
video game, created by The Toymaker (Sylvester Stallone), who battles his own
split-personalities as he holds Juni's sister Carmen (Alexa Vega) hostage in
cyberspace. When Juni's allowed one companion on this perilous quest, he wisely
chooses his grandpa (Ricardo Montalban) who soon becomes a superhero. While
there are some clever allusions - Juni's known as "The Guy," a play on "The One"
from "The Matrix," and Montalban's wheelchair is "fine Corinthian leather," etc.
- the video-game characters are inexplicably and unpredictably hostile, then
friendly, but most often duplicitous, noting: "Time flies when you're playing
games!" Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Cheech Marin, and Holland Taylor appear
briefly in cameos, along with Steve Buscemi, Alan Cummings, Bill Paxton, Emily
Osment, reprising their previous "Spy Kids" characters. On the Granger Movie
Gauge of 1 to 10, "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" is a mindlessly chaotic,
family-friendly 5, but parents should be prepared to fork out for the
video-game, in addition to the video games for "Pirates of the Caribbean,"
"Finding Nemo," "Enter the Matrix," "Hulk," and "X-Men 2: Wolverine's Revenge."
Copyright © 2003 Susan Granger
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