The first film is the only one to bother with, the second was okay and the third was awful, I did not have high hopes for this fourth instalment, which in 4D meant for cinema goers meant 3D effect and smelling or feeling things, not for me watching on TV, directed by Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn, Sin City). Basically Marissa Wilson (Jessica Alba) on the surface appears to be just an ordinary mother with a new baby and married to famous spy hunting television reporter Wilbur Wilson (Joel McHale). Her intelligent twin stepchildren Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil (The Lone Ranger's Mason Cook) don't want her around, thinking she is uncool, in fact, with her husband unaware, she is a retired secret agent. Her true identity is only revealed to Rebecca and Cecil when they enter the underground layer of the house, full of spy gadgets and gizmos, and they become entangled in a world domination plot, the maniacal Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven) threatens to take over the planet by slowing time. Marissa is wanted back in action by the Organization of Super Spies (OSS), home of the greatest spies and where the now defunct Spy Kids division was created. Rebecca and Cecil are surprised by the revelation of their "boring" stepmother, and with their bickering ways they must put their differences aside and work together to save the world, and they get help from former Spy Kids, now teenagers, brother and sister Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) and Carmen Cortez (Alexa PenaVega), and robotic talking dog Argonaut (voiced by Ricky Gervais). In the end, after defeating the Time Keeper and his identical henchmen, Danger D'Amo and Tick Tick (both also Piven), time is intact and restored, and the Spy Kids program is revived, with Rebecca and Cecil going on to become recruiters of new agents. Also starring Danny Trejo as Uncle Machete, Chuck Cureau as News Anchor and Jeepers Creepers' Jonathan Breck as Wilbur's Boss. The previous instalment was a complete mess, it crossed the line between expensive trash and cheap rubbish with its use of special effects, unfortunately things have not improved with this fourth instalment, the special effects are pointless when you combine with a predictable and stupid story, I perhaps tittered at the voice of Gervais and some spoof references, but the charm has disappeared and it feels like the kids themselves are responsible for putting it together, this is one the kids and the family should not even bother with, a crap fantasy action adventure. Pretty poor!

The real purpose of a movie is to entertain (escapism) - to distance you from your problems for a short period of time. If you will look at this movie from the perspective of a person viewing movies for entertainment purposes, then this movie is good (not very good since there are a lot of better escapist movies out there). If you look at it from the perspective of a movie critic, then this is a horrible movie, filled with clichés and poop jokes.The first film of this franchise may have had some cliché plot points, but it didn't rely on poop and fart jokes to move the story or try to make the viewer laugh.This movie has the usual 'stepdaughter-hates-stepmom' and the 'geeky brother' story lines along with the happily ever after ending. It seems the movie thinks that watching these story lines is entertaining to kids, when in fact, it's not (speaking from my perspective as a 13 year old kid). To be frank, it's quite annoying.However, this movie doesn't lack on the entertainment value. CGI all-around, gadgets everywhere, this movie has tons of cool stuff to keep the viewer at the edge of their seat. There are jokes that if you watch first may seem funny, but in the end will make you think "is that joke really funny, or is it offensive".Bottomline is, this movie can be good or bad, depending on your perspective. To me, it's escapism at its finest.

This is definitely the worst spy kids movie ever made and 1 of the worst of all movies. The scenery was too boring or twisted. What is with a spy baby, a spy dog, and a villain who doesn't know what he was doing until the kids showed him the real truth? The kids who played the spy kids didn't even go on a mission until the last 20 minutes of the movie to experience being spies. The father was creepy showing an eye brow look to his son to look tough and his show was dumb. How dare filmmakers imitate a similar home to where The Cortezes lived in! Acting was poor. Same goes for the gadgets. What was ironic was the new spy kids looked much younger than the original spy kids, when they started being spies. I think this was just a movie to laugh at how poor of a job it was made.

I think the film has been given a lot of negative reviews on IMDb but the intended audience is for children. I loved the film, the combination of new characters with the previous Cortez kids, to me, improved the film and made it a fun watch. There were a few moments that I found humorous and moments where I actually felt for the characters.Jessica Alba (Susan Storm in Fantastic 4) was an amazing addition to the cast and really brought her character, Marissa, to life. Overall the acting was really good for such a young cast and the story line was different from the first 3 films but I believe the third spykids film (Game Over) was not a very good story line. This film is slightly dark at times but the quality of the film and the issues tackled within the story make it a fantastic watch.I think as a kids film it is pretty awesome and I loved watching it. I would definitely watch it again.