• Aspect Ratio: 1:78:1
  
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4 (2D), MVC (3D)
  
• Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
• Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Subtitles: (2D-only) English SDH, Spanish
  
• Region: A (Region-Locked)
• Rating: PG
  
• Run Time: 88 Mins.
• Discs: 4 (1 x Blu-ray 3D + 1 x Blu-ray + 1 x DVD + 1 x Digital Copy)
• Studio: The Weinstein Company/Anchor Bay Entertainment
  
• Blu-ray Release Date: November 8th, 2011
• List Price: $39.99

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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
Video Quality
2D HD: [Rating:3.5/5]
3D Effect: [Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG  thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Film

[Rating:1.5/5]

I had rather low expectations going into this movie and with good reason. I never thought the original Spy Kids films were great filmmaking to begin with, but the first two were at least passable family fun. The third one was just a travesty and the recently reviewed The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl from 2005 was even worse than Spy Kids 3. When I saw a fourth Spy Kids was coming, I thought, “you gotta be kiddin’ me?.” Nope. Director Robert Rodriquez was all too serious. He enlisted the perennially-strapped-to-bad-films Jessica Alba (see my other recent review of An Invisible Sign starring Alba) this time out to play Marissa Wilson a new mom and retired spy with the OSS recently married to the clueless Wilbur (Joel McHale) whose two kids, Cecil (Mason Cook) and Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard), don’t like her too much. Well, Cecil thinks she’s okay, but the prank-playing Rachel is the one who’s always giving her a hard time. These two kids are in for a big surprise, because they are soon going to find out their stepmom is a spy. Marissa is reactivated when and old foe, Tick Tock (Jeremy Piven) reemerges with a device that threatens to steal time from the world and she must stop them, with the help of her two step kids.

Alexa Vega ( “Carmen Cortez”) and Daryl Sabara (“Juni Cortez”) are also brought back in All the Time in the World for the proverbial passing of the torch on to the two new young stars, but this latest outing of Spy Kids is the worst so far. The story is ridiculous and far too reliant on gags and bathroom humor, When Alba grabs a “poopy diaper” and starts throwing them at the bad guys, you know they’ve “nuked the refrigerator” on this one, so to speak. I’d also add that the special effects don’t seem up to par with previous efforts. Maybe Rodriguez spent too much cash on the bad 3D conversion and “Aroma-Scope” to put some compelling visuals in the actual film.

Video Quality

2D HD: [Rating:3.5/5]

3D Effect: [Rating:3.5/5]

In keeping with the Spy Kids franchise, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World was shot on video and it shows in that the image does not look very film-like at all. There are quite a few original HD productions showing up these days on the latest and greatest cameras that come very close to looking like film, but this isn’t one of them. It may have well been shot on a Handicam. Detail isn’t ever very strong and overall contrast is rather dull. Colors do look really vibrant and in truth this film looks much better on Blu-ray than all three of the previous Spy Kids films, but that’s not really saying much.

The 3D disc, absent “Aroma-Scope” since we have not yet been given Smell-e-Vision, looks rather good for a conversion, but it still has many moments where the people look too flat, like cardboard cutouts, which quickly becomes annoying and is good reason why 3D should be native or not done at all. There isn’t much pop-out effect, but ghosting/crosstalk is minimal.

Audio Quality

[Rating:4/5]

There’s a good lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack offered up here, but it is certainly not one of the best I’ve heard for an action-oriented film such as this. Low frequencies are on the hefty side, but they could have been beefed up a bit more. The surround channels are active with lots of bleeps, blurps, and bangs, but sometimes the mix just sounds a bit disjointed. Dialogue, however, is clean and clear, never lost in the fray.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:2.5/5]

All the supplements reside on the Blu-ray 2D disc and are, unfortunately, all in standard definition, albeit really good looking SD.

The supplements provided with this release:

• Deleted Scenes (1.78:1; 480i/60):
  • Trouble at School
  • Sneaking Around
  • Testing Lab
  • Spy Tracker 6000
  • Inside Argo
  • Camouflage Poncho
• Robert Rodriguez Interview with Kid Reporter (1.78:1; 480i/60; 00:06:58)
• Spy Kids: Passing the Torch (1.78:1; 480i/60; 00:07:59)
• Rowan & Mason’s Video Diary (1.78:1; 00:04:52)
• How to Make a Robotic Dog (1.78:1; 480i/60; 00:03:46)
• Ricky Gervais as Argonaut (1.78:1; 480i/60; 00:04:20)
• Spy Gadgets (1.78:1; 480i/60; 00:03:51)
• DVD
• Digital Copy

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:3.5/5]

A lame outing all around, only the least demanding of kids could possibly enjoy this. Robert Rodriguez should have quit while he was ahead with this once fun franchise. I don’t think anything could save this thing from the diaper bombs now. Skip it.

Additional Screen Captures

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[amazon-product]B005FLSZRO[/amazon-product]

BestBuy.com:

Purchase Spy Kids: All the Time in the World on Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack at CD Universe

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
Video Quality
2D HD: [Rating:3.5/5]
3D Effect: [Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]

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