CAST: Jessica Alba, Joel McHale, Jeremy Piven, Rowan Blanchard, Mason Cook, Ricky Gervais, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara; DIRECTOR/WRITER: Robert Rodriguez; GENRE: Sci-fi/Fantasy/Action/Adventure;RUNNING TIME: 100 Minutes; LOCATION: USA
Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 4
Cinema Rating: For viewers 13 and below with parental guidance
Ace spy Marissa Cortes Wilson (Jessica Alba) is nine months pregnant and tells herself she’ll hang her spy boots after she gives birth so she can be full time mommy. There’s just this one last baddie Tick Tock (Jeremy Piven) that needs to be captured, otherwise the whole world will suffer from his mischief. But Marissa’s spy career is a secret, and the last to know is her television star husband Wilbur Wilson (Joel McHale) who, ironically, is known as “Spy Hunter” because he literally hunts spies. The day after the mad chase Tick Tock that includes a swing at the zip line and roaring through town like a Le Mans racer in a James Bond car, Marissa gives birth to a girl. And Tick Tock is behind bars. A year later, being mom to her own daughter and stepmom to Wilbur’s kids Rebecca Wilson (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil Wilson (Mason Cook), may be fulfilling to Marissa, but how can she resist another opportunity to save humanity from evil? It’s a call she must heed and so she dons her spywear once more and jumps into her mission—this time with baby in tow.
Director Robert Rodriguez must have aimed his shot at kids of Rebecca’s and Cecil’s age, what with all the times he resorts to potty humor: baby passing gas, dog letting out oil “urine”, a soiled nappy hurled at a villain’s face, etc. Spy gadgets appear as virtual toys, and a life-threatening chase involving acrobatic mini-jets is made to look like a ride in an amusement park. Children navigating a deadly giant clock mechanism seem to be merely playing hop-scotch when they could have been sliced, maimed, or decapitated. These kids get away with doing things real kids in real life should never attempt. Their guardian angels must have had their hands full keeping the kids blissfully unharmed. And what mother in her right mind would run, skip, jump and kick ass with her baby on a sling—unless she’s a kangaroo. But of course, this movie is sci-fi/fantasy.
But in the heart of this movie is a warning which it seems unable to say often enough: family is most important in life; spend time with your children while you can. Wilson the father keeps telling his kids he’s sorry he hasn’t got enough time for and with them. His foolish plan is to work like mad for five straight years so he can afterwards just relax and have time for them. Then somebody tells him his kids won’t be kids anymore in five years, and the only thing he’ll have plenty of time for then is regret. Even the villain himself, a character named Time Keeper, appears on television and says he is taking time away from people because people waste it anyway on inconsequential matters. The message is: our loved ones must come first in a person’s life—they deserve our time, presence and attention most of all—and this message is repeated so often it’s impossible to miss, especially since it’s often coming out of babes’ mouths. If only for that, we can say Spy Kids: All the Time in the World is worth your money to watch. So you see: the gadgets and the stunts are the gift-wrapping; the gift is the solid message sorely needed in our time-driven world.
