It smells . . .By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
"I don't like to go to the movies to see violence or some kind of spy thing with all kinds of information you have to assimilate to understand the plot." Pia Zadora
The scratch and sniff card accompanying each admission to Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D is one of the most coherent parts of the experience. Eight times sniffing with some barely discernable smells makes sense, so to speak, if you're writer/director Robert Rodriguez trying to outdo the vibe of his El mariachi or even a previous Spy Kid movie.
He needs antihistamine for clarity of purpose and unity of story.
Jessica Alba is called back to service as a spy to stop the Time Keeper from taking the world's time so he can go back to his dad. Straight out of Bat Man's Joker. Oedipus this is not although the film would have done well to explore more fully the Freudian undercurrents. At best, Rodriquez sprinkles around a kid's vomit, a dog's flatulence, and a dirty diaper for laughs and for critics like me to discover hidden meanings (I'm still thinking).
New spy-step kids help pregnant Marissa in the fight while feckless dad (Joel McHale), a TV spy catcher, is sidelined with identity issues that Sophocles and Freud would have appreciated. Even old spy kids return, but to no avail because the plot is a series of set pieces with some nifty graphics but no depth.
The "super rich sensory multidimensional experience" promised by a talking dog in the beginning of the film doesn't quite jibe with what I heard a young boy in the men's room say to his friend: "What a cheesy movie!"That's as bald an indictment as I have heard about any film aimed at this 10 year old. Although the effects are not cheesy, the story line and characters are.
Robert Rodriquez is not, at least when he's not cranking out his fourth Spy Kids.
John DeSando co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com