"Impossible. She's not cool enough."
It is remarkable that Rodriguez continues to extend the Spy Kids franchise, and this quasi-reboot prolongs it for another round. For a long time, the script of Spy Kids 4 is so anodyne that it leaves little impression, until plot overload kicks in for the finale. As always, the Spy Kids films work best when they acknowledge that they are nothing more than live-action cartoons, and there are a couple of nice sight and sound gags here, together with some useful and interesting (3D) design. The original 'kids' are here looking much older, and the new generation (the stepchildren) appear to improve as the film progresses. Jessica Alba and Joel McHale are bland parental leads, whilst Ricky Gervais provides a little bite as the talking dog. The dialogue contains more clunky time-related puns than could be squeezed into a 1960s Batman episode, meaningless to the target audience but irritating for the adult viewer. There is a reason why the scratch-'n'-sniff '4D Aroma-Scope' gimmick has never caught on: it simply doesn't work, and apart from a couple of the 'sweets' smells on the card provided for viewing this film, the weak and similar scents simply distract from watching the film. This is another harmless, colourful and innocuous entry in the Spy Kids series that - box office permitting - will simply run and run.
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