Spy Kids: All the Time in the World

Spy Kids: All the Time in the World
File:Spy kids four all the time in the world poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Rodriguez
Produced by	Robert Rodriguez Elizabeth Avellan
Written by	Robert Rodriguez
Starring	Jessica Alba Joel McHale Alexa Vega Daryl Sabara Mason Cook Rowan Blanchard Ricky Gervais Jeremy Piven
Music by	Robert Rodriguez Carl Thiel
Cinematography	Robert Rodriguez Jimmy Lindsey
Edited by	Dan Zimmerman
Production company	Troublemaker Studios Dimension Films
Distributed by	The Weinstein Company
Release dates	August 19, 2011 (2011-08-19)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English Spanish
Budget	$27 million
Box office	$85.6 million

Spy Kids: All the Time in the World is a 2011 American 4D science fiction fantasy action comedy adventure film directed by Robert Rodriguez and it is the fourth installment in the Spy Kids film series. It is a sequel to 2003's Game Over. The film stars Jessica Alba, Joel McHale, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Rowan Blanchard, Mason Cook, Ricky Gervais, and Jeremy Piven in a dual role. It was released on August 19, 2011. Filming began on October 27, 2010. It is the first of the series that uses "Aroma-scope" that allows people to smell odors and aromas from the film via scratch & sniff cards (reminiscent of the infamous 1960s Smell-O-Vision) last used theatrically in the 2003 animated film Rugrats Go Wild. This is the first film without the participation of Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino and without the distribution of Miramax Films. The film received generally negative reviews upon release, with an approval rating of 22% and an average rating of 3.9 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes.

Plot

Organization of Super Spies (OSS) agent Marissa Wilson (Jessica Alba) is leading a team of agents attempting to capture a criminal named Tick Tock (Jeremy Piven), who purchases a mini-disk stolen from OSS. Despite being nine months pregnant and going into labor, she continues her pursuit, against the admonitions of her boss, Danger D'Amo (also played by Jeremy Piven). Tick Tock is captured and the mini-disk, which contains information on a weapon of mass destruction called Project: Armageddon, is retrieved.

At the hospital, Marissa meets her spy-hunting TV host husband, Wilbur (Joel McHale), who thinks she is an interior decorator, and her two stepchildren by him, twins Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil (Mason Cook). And after giving birth to a daughter, Maria, she decides to retire, in order to keep her family out of danger and prevent them from learning about her former career. However, the twins observe that Wilbur's work leaves him little time to spend with them, and Rebecca in particular does not accept Marissa as a replacement for her deceased mother, and delights in playing pranks on her. Attempting to strengthen her rapport with Rebecca, Marissa gives her a red-sapphire necklace that she says her own parents gave her when she was Rebecca's age, and which she says will protect her in her darkest hour.

The media reports that time is speeding up at an increasing rate. A masked criminal mastermind calling himself the Time Keeper (also played by Jeremy Piven), who is allied with an escaped Tick Tock, claims responsibility for the phenomena, saying that he will unleash Project: Armageddon, as punishment upon a society he believes wastes time with meaningless pursuits instead of treasuring time with one's loved ones. The Time Keeper demands that Tick Tock bring him the Chronos Sapphire, the only thing that can stop it, which is revealed to be the jewel in the necklace Marissa gave Rebecca. The OSS calls Marissa back out of retirement and instructs her to bring the Chronos Sapphire with her. When Marissa requests it from Rebecca, it further strains their relationship, and when Marissa arrives at OSS headquarters with Maria, she discovers that the box Rebecca gave her did not contain the jewel.

Before Marissa can return home, Tick Tock's henchmen break into their house, and Rebecca and Cecil are directed to take refuge in a secret Panic Room built into their home, where they view a video of Marissa informing the children of her secret career. The incredulous twins are further shocked when their dog, Argonaut, begins to speak, revealing himself to be an intelligent robot. The twins escape the henchman and go to OSS headquarters, where Marissa's niece and their step-cousin, Carmen Cortez (Alexa Vega), gives the twins a tour of the now defunct Spy Kids Division, and the weapons its juvenile agents once used. Carmen lets the twins each pick out one deactivated gadget as a souvenir.

As Marissa pursues Tick Tock with Maria in tow, Rebecca and Cecil decide to go after the Time Keeper. Their search leads them to a clock shop, which is revealed to be Tick Tock's headquarters. The twins view a video of the Wells Experiment, a 1930s time travel project that resulted in a boy being frozen in time, and which reveals the nature of the Chronos Sapphire in Rebecca's necklace. The twins are then captured by Tick Tock, but are then rescued by Marissa and Carmen, who activate the twin's souvenirs, though Tick Tock manages to steal the Chronos Sapphire before the family escapes. Wilbur's investigations also lead him to the clock shop, but he is shocked to learn that Marissa is a spy. When he destroys the footage that he and his cameraman filmed of the battle, he is fired and becomes estranged from Marissa and the children.

As time continues to speed up, OSS agents are debriefed on the Wells Experiment, which almost caused the end of the world. The OSS shut down the experiment and placed the device under lockdown. Among the agents assigned to the case is Carmen's brother, Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara), who has been on a secret mission and has not seen her in seven years. Bitter over their estrangement, she tosses his ID badge in the garbage out of spite. The twins confront Danger D'Amo over the fact that his watch is similar to the one worn by the Time Keeper, and the fact that his name is an anagram of "Armageddon." He confirms that he is the Time Keeper, and imprisons them. When a group of OSS agents led by Marissa, Carmen and Juni return to the clock shop to confront the Time Keeper, he freezes the agents in time using circuity in their ID badges that he can control with his watch, and does the same on a more massive scale to 18 major cities around the globe. Juni, however, whose badge was thrown away by Carmen, is still free, and manages to free Marissa and Carmen.

Danger reveals to the twins that his father was the head of the Wells Experiment and that he was the boy frozen in time. His father spent the remainder of his life trying unsuccessfully to set him free. The OSS managed to shut down the experiment with the Chronos Sapphire, which fell to Earth as a meteorite. In doing this they freed the boy, but he was now a man in a boy's body, and his loved ones were all now dead. Now Danger plans to use the Armageddon Device in go back in time in order to be reunited with his father. Cecil, however, tells Danger that attempts at time travel merely create multiple versions of oneself. Cecil deduces that Danger has already tried this unsuccessfully before multiple times, and that each time he comes back, he comes back worse, pointing out that Tick Tock and his now-unmasked minions are all versions of Danger himself. Cecil says that persisting in trying to change the past will only cause Armageddon, and Rebecca, who sympathizes with Danger's bereavement, tells him that it is important that he use what time he has wisely, instead of trying to acquire more of it. When Danger's time vortex opens, he steps through it, and meets his father in the past, but then returns an elderly man, and realizes that Cecil was right, as he could not change anything. He shuts down the device and Tick Tock is apprehended by Wilbur, who shows up and is reunited with Marissa and the children. Carmen and Juni announce that they will co-lead a revived Spy Kids program, while Rebecca and Cecil go on to become recruiters of new agents themselves, including the kids watching the movie.

Cast

• Jessica Alba as Marissa Wilson (née Cortez), a spy, wife to Wilbur Wilson and stepmother to Rebecca and Cecil, as well as Carmen and Juni's aunt.
• Joel McHale as Wilbur Wilson, Marissa's spy-hunting reporter husband.
• Alexa Vega as Carmen Cortez, a top secret agent for the OSS. She and her brother Juni were the main characters in the previous films.
• Daryl Sabara as Juni Cortez, a retired OSS agent. He and his sister Carmen were the main characters in the previous films.
• Rowan Blanchard as Rebecca Wilson, Wilbur's daughter. She has not accepted Marissa as a replacement for her mother, and delights in playing pranks on her.
• Mason Cook as Cecil Wilson, Wilbur's son who is hearing-impaired. He is more open-minded than Rebecca about Marissa being their new mother.
• Ricky Gervais as Argonaut (voice)
• Belle Solorzano and Genny Solorzano as Maria Wilson Spy Baby, Marissa's daughter and Rebecca and Cecil's half-sister
• Jeremy Piven as Danger D'Amo Time Keeper, Danger's Father also portrays Tick Tock
• Danny Trejo as Isador "Machete" Cortez
• Angela Lanza as Female Spy OSS Agent (minor scenes)

Production

Robert Rodriguez was prompted by an incident on the set of Machete to start envisioning a fourth film in the Spy Kids series. Star Jessica Alba had her then-one year old baby Honor Marie and was dressed to appear on camera when her baby's diaper "exploded". Watching Alba change the diaper while trying not to get anything on her clothes prompted Rodriguez to think "What about a spy mom?" Production on the film was officially announced on September 25, 2009, six years after the release of Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, by Dimension Films. The script for the film was completed by Robert Rodriguez in December 2009. The title for the film was officially revealed as Spy Kids: All the Time in the World on March 24, 2010 as well as an August 2011 release window, which was later updated to an August 19, 2011 release date.

Reception

Critical response

Ricky Gervais was praised by critics for his performance.

The film received generally negative reviews upon release, with an approval rating of 22% and an average rating of 3.9 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes. It has a score of 37 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 14 reviews indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a B-plus on an A-plus to F scale. Common Sense Media gave the film 1 out of 5 stars. The website reads, "Positive messages can't save worst film in action series."

Box office

The film took in $4 million on its opening day and $11 million over the three-day weekend, debuting in third place behind The Help and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. That was on the low end of expectations, but an executive of The Weinstein Company said, "We're okay with this number. We're going to be in good shape with this film, and it will play for the rest of the summer". The following weekend, it dropped 48% to $6 million, and took sixth place, and on the following weekend, it earned an additional $6.8 million over the four-day Labor Day Weekend. As of November 2011, the film earned $38 million in the U.S and $47 million in other countries for a worldwide gross of $85 million.

Awards

ALMA Awards 2011

Award	Category	Nominee	Result
ALMA Award	Favorite Movie	Ricky Gervais	Nominated

Kids' Choice Awards, USA 2012

Award	Category	Nominee	Result
Blimp Award	Favorite Butt Kicker	Jessica Alba	Nominated

Young Artist Awards 2012

Award	Category	Nominee	Result
Young Artist Award	Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor and Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actress Ten and Under	Mason Cook and Rowan Blanchard	Nominated

Home media

The film was released on DVD, Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray and on DVD + Blu-ray + Digital Copy combo packs on November 22, 2011.

Notes

1. ^ The Walt Disney Company had to cut their own share with The Weinstein Company to 5% after the latter party lost their bid to reclaim Miramax Films.

External links

• Official Website
• Spy Kids: All the Time in the World at IMDb