Series: Robert Rodriguez

Robert Rodriguez emerged from the ’90s Sundance scene

Was I too hard on Spy Kids 2 and Spy Kids 3?

The Robert Rodriguez kiddie digital filmmaking experience remains a half-coherent, sugar-coated blast of prepubescent id.

We Can Be Heroes, the Robert Rodriguez return to family entertainment, is not quite good, but it is far more competent and watchable than I feared, especially given the car crash that was the Spy Kids reboot.

Calling The Adevntures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl “ugly” is a grave understatement.

There were certainly worse ideas in 2011 than rebooting the Spy Kids franchise. It’s a film concept that’s easy to refresh: recruit a new batch of charming kid actors, update the gadgets for the new era, weave in some family values, and spin up a kooky spy-fi premise.

I did not watch Machete and think “that movie left a lot on the table.”

Spy Kids 1 delivered on multiple competing genre fronts: a family-bonding adventure, a kiddie spy-action thriller, a light satire, and a digital editing/CGI showcase. Overall, a precarious, well-executed balancing act.

Nathan Rabin’s legendary My Year of Flops feature on AV Club groups bad movies into three categories: