AGW Entertainment reporter Lynn B. saw a new family action film

SPY KIDS 3-D: GAME OVER

Dimension Films

The family Cortez is back but this time, put on your weird 3-D glasses and watch them in cyber-space as they prevent another wild mogul from taking over the world in Spy kids 3-D.

This time, the main action finds Juni (Daryl Sabara) working as a private eye, having left behind his work as a secret agent in the last film. He's finding lost cats and living small but must go back into spy action to save his sister, hacker par excellence Carmen (Alexa Vega), who is trapped in a new video game called "Game Over" by its creator the Toymaker (Sylvester Stallone) who is out to take over the minds of kids everywhere. Juni is put inside the game by the head of the OSS and a hot scientist played by Salma Hayek. Once inside he's allowed to chose one assistant and picks his wheelchair-bound grandpa (Ricardo Montalban) for his upper-body strength and mental agility.

Together, and with the aid of several other players or game testers trapped in the game, Grandpa and Juni find Carmen and they go through tons of game-created obstacles to escape and stop the Toymaker. An ending scene in the real world brings together Gertie and Gary Giggles and inventor Romero (who arrives on a cute flying pig) from the last film and the entire Cortez family.
This movie is really fun to watch. The 3-D is a kick although the color kind of fades out in the 3-D world and the make-up effects are pretty cheesy. If you ever rented that ancient "inside a video game" film Tron, you'll get the idea of what the film is about. The opening of the movie is fun as Alan Cumming reappears as kiddie show host Floop and tells us the Spy Kid story so far in a cool pop up book form. You are told to put on your 3-D glasses when the actors in the film do. Visually, the virtual reality game is fun and an odd race and a "surfing on lava" scene are especially entertaining.

Don't expect to see the entire Cortez family throughout the film. Mom and Dad only appear briefly. It's really Juni's movie. He's the hero along with Grandpa. It's soooo cool to see classic wheelchair-bound actor Ricardo Montalban "walking and jumping" around in cyberspace as he is given a Robocop-style body once he is in the game. There are great lessons here about family unity and not seeking revenge and having respect for handicapped people who may have tons to give to the world if we could just ignore that wheel chair! None of these "lessons" are laid on in a preachy manner, however. The story of evil maniacs planning to take over the minds of kids using t.v. signals or video games has been done to death so nothing too original there story-wise.

There are some fun cameos throughout the film including "Frodo", Elijah Wood and George Clooney as the President. Of course Sly Stallone plays the bad guy and he's fun although he won't win any acting awards as he talks to three supposedly distinct versions of himself and all three kinda sound the same.
This third installment in the series is short on character relationships (except Grandpa and Juni) and very long on visual action and I kind of missed that entire Cortez family cooperation but the last few scenes make up for that I suppose. All in all, you'll still have fun.

Rated: PG

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