Mini espías 3D: Se Acabó El Juego

There's little denying that the Spy Kids series wasn't brilliant. Far better kids' films have been made. Though I must admit, I have enjoyed them. They have proved to be extremely flexible with mediocre budgets and are extremely fun to watch. And Spy Kids 3-D brings you into the experience - anything in 3-D is brilliant, but I found this an overwhelming cinematic experience with the 3-D glasses. This may explain why Spy Kids 3-D did well at the box office. Although, saying that, the only really good thing is the cinematic experience. This film does have substance enough to keep you watching through the whole thing, but there's no denying that it lacks on the intelligence and is once again, a predictable affair. And there's no character development either - didn't either of the Spy Kids learn anything from their encounters in the game? There really isn't much to warrant a DVD purchase - though you can still view it in 3D on the TV, a lot of the experience is lost in the translation. Though to be honest, this isn't exactly a gem for your collection, but it isn't exactly a large mound of doggy do either. 6/10

My daughters are aged 9, 14, and 15. They all loved it. I liked it much better than the bogus spy kid 2. That film we had to watch sheep goo on kids heads for a full hour. This film was fast paced and made more sense if you play video games. There are many references to video game levels and how much strength left. I did not care for the one chosen "guy" who was only in it for a few seconds and please drop the computer nerd stuff and the movie did not need nerds.

The 3 D was not great but probably better in digital which only a few theaters have. The terror of the Wax museum 30 years ago had much better 3 D. All in all a fun film. Ricardo Montalban still makes an impact.

I did like the first two movies, which had a sense of fun, but despite a wonderful idea, Spy Kids 3D fails to live up to the standard of the first two movies.

I will say though that the 3D effects are more than decent, and there are spirited performances from Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara. And I did really like the idea of the story, it was a very original idea, sadly the execution was patchy.

The storyline was sadly very predictable, and despite the impressive images on screen, it failed to have a sense of wonder. Another problem was that the script was very devoid of humour, and while the first two movies were well written and had some funny moments, this instalment had one or two laughs scattered here and there, but overall was a bit limp, and the finale was rather disappointing.

The acting certainly wasn't awful, it was just a little uninspired. The two leads are fine and Ricardo Montalban is surprisingly very good as the grandfather, and while Antonio Banderas, Steve Buscemi, Tony Shalhoub and George Clonney did their best, the uneven script disallowed them to have any sense of fun. The actor I was most disappointed with, sorry guys, was Sylvester Stallone. Now I like Stallone, and I consider Oscar(1991) one of the most unfairly underrated movies ever, and I like a fair majority of his work. But here I felt he was out of character playing the villain. Hamming it up, a phrase I usually despise describes his acting here perfectly, and he overdoes it shamelessly at times.

Overall, Spy Kids 3D isn't terrible, it is just mediocre, and could have been much better. 4/10 for the 3D effects, and the efforts of the cast. Bethany Cox

Juni Cortez is no longer with the OSS and is now a private detective, taking work where he can get it. However, the President himself requests Juni return to service as his sister is in danger. She has entered, and become trapped in, a deadly video game called Game Over which has been designed by the Toymaker. In it he ensnares children's minds forever. Juni is sent in to rescue her and team up to stop the Toymaker's evil plot. Enlisting his grandfather's help, Juni sets out to win the unwinable level 5.

I usually don't enter a film series in the middle simply because it is often difficult to appreciate the third instalment of anything without having seen what has gone before. However, when it comes to a kids' film, I was pretty sure that I could managed to battle through the labyrinth-like plotting of the Sky Kids series! I started watching this film in 3-D (I had a 2 dvd set) but the glasses were a little uncomfortable and the colours looked funny all the way through. After seeing a few items sort of float vaguely around my television I was quite unimpressed and decided just to go with the 2-D disk. The plot is pretty thin (it's never really clear what the attraction of the game is or what the Toymaker even wants) but it sets up a colourful and enjoyable little ride through a computer game - which is delivered pretty well despite all it's silliness!

The main weapon in the Spy Kids' cannon is it's stars - both actors and director. Rodriguez is a very good director when it comes to style and action and his influence makes this film a lot more fun than others likely would. He is slick but also fully aware that he needs to make it `fun' and not just colourful and noisy. It's all a bit silly of course but the 3-D gimmick is a little bit heavy at times (like the old films in the 50's that had actors punching at the screen) but it isn't that bad. The reason the silliness doesn't really damage the film is because the actors seem to play to it - and a very fine series of performances these are. Pretty much all the cast are good fun and their performances are about as hammy and fun as you can imagine. Sabara is great fun - a cool kid without any of the horrid cutesy stuff that can happen. I found Vega less fun as she was a little too smart for my liking, but she was still fun and the rest of the kids were suitably fun with not a bad performance between them. The adult cast will provide much of the fun for the adults watching - there is a large number of Rodriguez regulars in the cast who all overplay to suit the sense of fun the film has.

Montalban is great fun. Forever Khan in my mind, he has a great voice and screen presence and he heavy makes the message of forgiveness work reasonably well and not just being mawkish like it should be! Stallone hams it up and has good fun even if his multiple personalities don't totally work. Clooney has fun in his small role but the rest of the cast are all cameos some of them are used pretty well and got a giggle but others just show their faces. However, they don't detract from the film and it at least will amuse parents to see people like Martin, Trejo, Cumming, Shalhoub, Buscemi, Paxton, Wood and Hayek. The out takes at the end made me realise how good the performances were - it just never dawned on me that, although I knew it wasn't real, that 95% of this was shot on greenscreen - making acting to anything that little bit harder.

Overall, this is a silly film but it is one that kids will love. The sheer sense of fun that Rodriguez brings to it is infectious and makes for a great 90 minutes with the kids. The star cast made it more enjoyable for me and helped the sense that everyone was just enjoying themselves. It is hardly a great film but it does just what you expect it to do and who can ask anymore than that? On the basis of this I will definitely be watching the first two films when I cross their paths. Sad - but true!

I saw this movie and I loved it! Granted, it's not the best in the series (hands down to 1 and 2, I'm not sure which is better)and the story focuses mainly around Juni (my least favorite character). The plot for this movie is the toymaker has a new game called Game Over (hence the title), and the main puropes is for him to take over children's minds. He kidnaps Carmen, and it's basically up to Juni to save her. Arnold and his friends so could have been left out, or, portrayed by people that can act. The story starts out strong, the action is always there, and other than the fact that the movie is focused on Juni and him alone, that's probably the only glich that this movie has. Don't let the 3-d thing get to you, it's not that hard. However, if one is going to see it, they had better come with an open mind about movie making and special effects.