I’ve only seen the first of the Spy Kids movies and that was a decent enough kids flick. Nothing special, but not horrible. Somehow this weekend, I got tricked into going to see the new one Spy Kids: All the Time in the World. And…it was not good. It wasn’t bad enough to make me walk out, but it didn’t make me want to see it again, or recommend it to anyone. This is a movie that only a six-year old could like. And even then, the smell card will be the best part. So, let’s see what’s caused this disaster.

Marissa Wilson (Jessica Alba) has her hands full. She has a husband who’s trying to make it big in TV, two step-kids, Rebecca and Cecil(Rowan Blanchard and Mason Cook), who aren’t sure if they like her and she’s 9 months pregnant. And, oh by the way, she’s a spy. She goes and captures the bad guy Tick Tock just as she starts labor. She insists that this is her last mission since now she wants to just be a (step-)mom.

Cut forward to one year later and the step-kids still aren’t happy with her. She makes a peace offering to Rebecca that seems to start breaching the distance. But when it turns out that the peace offering (a necklace) is the key to stopping Tick Tock’s boss the Time Keeper from destroying the world with a secret Armeggedon device. Since Rebecca has the necklace, the kids get drawn into the mix, find out that their step-mom was a spy, meet the original Spy Kids and help save the world with the help of the robotic dog (Ricky Gervais snarking and having a good time).

Overall, it’s a thoroughly mediocre movie. We saw it in 3-D* and it wasn’t worth it. The 4-D part was a smell card with 8 smells that you scratch and sniff when the number shows up on the screen. It was a silly gimmick that did nothing to enhance the movie. The movie was a mish-mash of stupid villains (who use anagrams to hide their secrets), a bad time-related plot and a secret that wasn’t much of a secret that was overblown. It was harmless, but stupid entertainment. Not recommended.

*The theater near me decided that all the daytime showings of the movie would be in 3-D and all the night time showings would be in 2-D. I had no reason to want to see it in 3-D, but I wasn’t able to see it at night, so I was stuck with the stupid glasses on.