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Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003) More at IMDbPro »

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180 comments in total

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15 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
The 3-D thing didn't work for me but there is still enough style and silliness to amuse both kids and adults, 2 May 2004
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

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!

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17 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
irredeemably stupid, 28 August 2004

Author: Charles Herold (cherold) from United States

What a mess. There are clever ideas here and there, a few laughs, the occasional decent special effect (I saw this on TV so didn't see it in 3D, which perhaps would have made the generally disappointing effects more impressive), but the lame, tossed-together script and the lack of any cohesion to the final product make this only barely watchable. This movie seems to just be going through the motions; you can't even call it formulaic because it barely attempts to even stick with any formula, it's more like random stuff thrown in here and there. As for the ending, well, it's main purpose was to create an excuse (and not a very good one) to have cameos by everyone who was in the first two movies (allowing them to list Bandaras first in the credits even though he's on screen for only a couple of minutes), and the final showdown is so utterly moronic that words fail me.

At the same time, I didn't actually hate it. I wasn't in pain watching it. It was a mindless Saturday afternoon movie and I watched it as mindlessly as I could and occasionally enjoyed it. But after the very fun second movie (which I thought superior to the first), this was a great disappointment. I'd advise skipping it.

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13 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
My kids liked it!, 1 August 2003
Author: mrskywalker from madagascar

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.

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14 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
The Spy Kids Franchise Ends On A Bad Note, 7 July 2005

Author: christian123

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over is a weak conclusion to the very entertaining Spy Kids franchise. Agents Juni and Carmen Cortez set out on their most mind-blowing mission yet: journeying inside the virtual reality world of a 3-D video game designed to outsmart them, as the awe-inspiring graphics and creatures of gaming come to real life. Relying on gadgetry, bravery, family bonds and lightning-quick reflexes, the Spy Kids must battle through tougher and tougher levels of the game in order to save the world from a power hungry villain. The plot sounds like it has some potential but the execution wasn't very good. I really don't have a problem with 3D but just because it is in 3D doesn't mean everything else has to be bad. The first two had good stories and were entertaining to watch. This one had a poor story and at times was too painful to watch. The acting took a drop from the previous film as most of the performances were bad. Sylvester Stallone did the worst out of everybody and I was wondering why he was even cast as his career is pretty much over. Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara play the two kids Juni and Carmen. In the first two, they give decent performances but, in this one they were awful. Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino don't really appear in the film which is probably better for them. There are also a series of cameos including Salma Hayek and George Clooney. Robert Rodriguez does a rather bad job of directing as the film looks like a mess. The script is terrible and predictable. The ending is really bad as it just seemed like some cheap way to include everyone in the film. The entire film felt rushed and they should had spent more time on it. The 3D isn't even that impressive and they focused on that then more than anything else. The film is also not very enjoyable to watch. When the film isn't in 3D, it gets really boring and most of the dialog isn't very funny either. The special effects were cheesy and looked really bad. The running time was a brief 90 minutes yet that felt a lot longer with the dull story. There is just very little to like here and I think they blew it as they could had made a very successful franchise {in terms of quality not money making}. In the end, this is a poor film and its better if kids and adults alike just skip it. Rating 3/10

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
fun for the little ones, but the series is getting stale, 30 July 2003
Author: Dan Heller (argv@danheller.com) from http://www.danheller.com/movies

Get your little ones ready for the game of their lives, cuz `Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over' will tickle their little bitty funny bones. This third installment of the popular `Spy Kids' series is like its predecessors in that it's high-tech, high-energy, high-fun, and high on the pro-family moral messages. What's more, it's in 3D, which requires disposable glasses, handed out at the theater. On the downside, the Spy Kids theme seems worn out, the actors have out-grown their roles, and the strong family-values messages are disingenuous and schmaltzy. In short, the cow's been milked for all its got.

But, anyway, back to the fun.

In this new adventure, Juni and Carmen Cortez find themselves on a mission to stop the release of a virtual-reality video game, aptly titled, `Game Over'. It is purported to be the best video game ever, and lines outside toy stores are growing around the country. But, the ISS has learned that the infamous `level five' captures the mind of the player, entrapping him eternally within the game. The threat, of course, is that `The Toymaker', played by Sylvester Stallone, is really out to control the minds of our youth, and thus, our future.

It turns out that The Toymaker himself is already entrapped in the game, so the only way to stop him is to actually play it. The movie begins when Juni, eager to be an `independent PI' at the age of 10, is called back to duty to the ISS to enter the game and find his sister Carmen, who had already tried to invade it, but was suspended in level 4. Juni catches up to her with the dubious help of a few experienced beta test players, who are determined to reach the 5th level on their own.

The true essence of the film is to simply show the video game, and with the 3D glasses, the 80% of the screen time that game consumes is definitely fun and worth the ride. The funny thing is, `Spy Kids 3D' makes no attempts to hide the fact that the only reason for the film is to show game. To wit, the plot points are meaningless, even to the point where the script itself acknowledges it: Juni asks why the Toymaker is caught in the game, and the answer is a humorous hand-wave, `Oh, it just happens.' The plot and characters are hurriedly scooted along to the start of the game, which then goes on and on and on, till the end, when scores of famous cameo appearances pepper the screen, all having fun and making statements about the importance of family, and yada yada yada.

Oh, it's not that there is anything wrong with such pro-family messages. But conspicuously downplayed are the genuine circumstances and feelings that were the impetus in the first, and best, of the Spy Kids trilogy.

The 3D aspect of the film involves wearing glasses that give depth to the objects on the screen. There are two ways to do this, and unfortunately, Spy Kids 3D uses the old-fashioned way, from the 1950s, where one lens is red and the other blue. The film is shot with the two colors shifted in opposite directions, and depth is perceived by the distance of the shift. Unfortunately, this mutes colors so much, that the beautiful and surreal colors expressed in the digital photography are lost. I can only assume that this was intentional, so as to give the video game its own sense of other-worldliness, which again, was nice.

With all its wild-riding and fun, Spy Kids 3D is just a movie for kids, unlike the first of the series, which was much smarter and hence, enjoyable by adults, too. So, best to drop off the little tykes at the theater with a baby sitter, and go shopping for a while. But, don't buy anything that's red and blue plaid, or your kids just may throw up on you.

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11 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
No, 12 February 2006

Author: jackstringer from United States

One day, I was in an mood to watch an action movie. I decided to go see this movie, I thought "how bad could it be?"...Bad. I hated everything about this movie. Those kids were horrible actors, they were annoying, and they had bad lines. The story was lame, I mean they're called "Spy kids", they don't spy! The only thing that made them spies is that they had a bunch of gadgets. The whole "guy" thing was taken right out of The Matrix. I've seen some other Rodriguiz movies and I liked them. But dude, stick with adult movies, cause the kid movie thing ain't working'. I play video games, and that doesn't make the movie any more interesting. The FX were horrible, and my Dad does visual FX, so I know a thing or two about that stuff. All in all, if you haven't seen this movie, don't see it.

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14 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
It may be 3-D, but the film is still FLAT, 28 July 2003
Author: scoobyg69 (scoobyg69@aol.com)

I just came home from watching it, and everyone is running for the Advils, it seems that the 3-D gave us all headaches. Anyways, here is my review.

I have had a 3-D book since I was a kid, and it came with it's own pair of 3-D glasses. You know the old fasioned kind, the red and blue shaded glasses that gives everything the red & blue tint. It is a very cool book with the old kind of 3-D.

Now, I remember in the 80's, all the NEW 3-D movies had a whole new 3-D. No longer were 3-D movies limited to the red & blue tint that required the red & blue shaded glasses, the glasses that were needed were clear & POLORIZED....it kept the movie in FULL color and gave the 3-D film a cleaner and sharper image.

I heard that this movie was a whole new approach to 3 demention, so I was excited about seeing this. But imagine my surprise when I bought the tickets when they handed me red & blue shaded 3-D glasses.

The only new approach is the computer graphics used in creating 3-D images. Instead of throwing real items towards the camera to make you duck in your seat, now there are computer generated items floating around and flying towards you. The special effects were, as always, top quality...but honestly...there was nothing new or special about the special effects. In reality, you feel as though you've seen it all before.

As for the 3-D effects. I must say how disappointed I was. The color in the film during the 3-D scenes seemed dull and almost a sepia tone, except for the red & blue tint used to make the images in 3-D.

I REALLY expected at LEAST a POLORIZED image for a bolder color and clearer 3 demention. Instead, all I got was a trip down memory lane with the old fashioned 3-D.

Now, if you have never SEEN a 3-D movie, dont get me wrong, it STILL is a spactacular thing to see, and you SHOULD experience it. The kids will LOVE it.

As for the storyline in this film....well, forget it. This wasn't created to carry a plot, it was created to become a cash-cow in the Spy Kids series and used 3-D to draw you in. It worked, but this plot didn't.

And if THIS film doesn't KILL Sylvester Stallone's movie career, then it's ALREADY DEAD! I was never more embarressed for an actor before than I was for him in this one. This was almost like seeing him wave a white flag and admit to being an aging Hollywood cast-away who is grasping at ANYTHING to stay on screen. Think Bette Davis's charactor in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Oh well. Your kids will love this 3-D mess, and if your easily amused, you might also.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Latin Magic, 29 July 2003
Author: tedg (tedg@FilmsFolded.com) from Virginia Beach

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Spoilers herein.

By now, you already know that this has a trivial story and apparently childish morales: `everyone is family,' and `forgiveness,' and respect for the otherly challenged. You know that it seemingly is a second-rate project with a single gimmick. You may even know about the rather offensively off-putting camp in the performances all around.

But this is still worth watching for two reasons.

The first is that the apparent superficiality is illusory. Casual adult viewers may think the story is Disney-like, revolving around a simple platitude - a platitude that is one of those artificial Sunday School truths we think it is good for kids but that no one actually lives. This is no Disney; in a typical Disney production - say `Lion King' - there is us and there is them. We watch them. The world is simple.

Spanish (and Portuguese!) literature since `Don Quixote' has been founded on a far richer notion. There's us and the book, and within the book is another observer and an observed reality. This creates an ambiguity about who we are and whether we are in the book, or the book is in our world, or (depending on the author) whether the world is created by the `writer' in the book.

It is a sophisticated notion. Very complex. When kids are exposed to it, it changes their facility for abstract reasoning, which is a whole different order of growth than `do-bee, don't-bee' moralization.

And despite apparent simplicities, this is a complex situation: the many versions of watchers and roles within roles and projections within projections are non-trivial. Forget about all the wiggling sprites and see what this is all about. Its very structure undermines its apparent saccharine morale, and makes it different than `Bullwinkle' and `Pussycats' and `Zoolander.'

Just consider the `short' at the beginning: hosted by our artificial intelligence guy (Mr. Lisp - Lisp is the language of AI) who ran a TeeVee show to entrap kids. He shows a book. The characters in the book are fingerpuppets. He also comments on the upcoming movie. This is a guy who makes movies, who is in a movie, who is commenting on another movie - and does so by showing a representation (a book) of another

representation (fingerpuppets), acting out that movie.

And the second reason? the 3-d of course. Now you may think this is unimportant, but we live in a visual world that is dominated by 2-d images of three dimensional reality. That means that we have generally lost our architectural awareness. Yes, it seems that this is all about those few things that come out of the screen. But it is far deeper than that, even with the primitive technology. This is from a guy who traveled a thousand miles to see a reconstructed `Dial M for Murder' played on dual projectors, possibly a once in a lifetime chance these days.

It matters. If you expose your kids to kiddie films, stick to this, the Pixar projects (`Nemo` is also about space), and the original Muppet Movie. Now that's parenting instead of babysitting.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching.

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11 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
I thought this film was great!!, 21 August 2003

Author: steven lashway from Saranac, NY

I see alot of people didn't like this movie. It's doing very good at the box office though. I thought this film was great! And I'm not a fan of the first two. I thought the effect were cool. When they were fighting each other with the robots and the camera was quickly panning in and out, that was cool, come on. And what about the race? That was awesome too!!! I don't know why he didn't have the rest of the family really return, but. All I have to say is this, Spy Kids 3 is the first film in years that I took my 9 year old son to and was glad I took him. No swearing, over the top violence and the ending actually had a GREAT MESSAGE! Hollywood, make more kids films like this!!!!!!!!!!

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
flippies ridiculous, 28 March 2006

Author: drewfes from United States

this 'film' is freaking ridiculous in the best way possible. if you've seen RR's scene in Four Rooms you know he's ingeniously crazy. Put that together with a spy hero kid 3d movie and voilà you have a darn malarious and tippy experience. Make sure your mind and body are kept in tune via herbal supplements and a large TV of course. basically the whole entire theme, all the dialog, and all the logic of the movie is absurd (extremely kiddish w. strong adult fun)....great escape from reality, no brainwashing, great clean crazy hilarious fun. i fully recommend.

Hmm...so i need 10 lines....lets see....there are a bunch of famous people in it, Sylvester Stallone is so out of character that it is the most funny thing i can imagine coming from that man. Also Steve Busheme makes a cameo, seems like he's in every movie these days, but i am not at all complaining. The last 15-20 minutes of the movie made me laugh so hard i cried. so much absurdity in such a seemingly serious setting in such a short period of time that i guarantee you will laugh uncontrollably even thinking about it.

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