SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD

SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD (PG for mild action & an overload of potty humor):  One also wonders why a 4th edition of this gadget-loaded kid series should have been made.  Sure, like FRIGHT NIGHT, it's been updated to 3D (which, thankfully, we still don't have) and it's crammed with new, electronically created gimmickry, with characters & set designs as zany as if from the marvelously creative Dr. Seuss - while Robert Rodriguez (who as usual wears many hats - writer, director, producer, etc. etc.) zips the action along with plenty of speed & noise - but do we really need it updated with 4D (smell is the 4th dimension, and the scratch & smell card fails miserably; do we really want to smell body odors & baby poop if the card works at all)?

Rodriguez directs his cast through his complicated plotline with typical haste (though not as excitedly as in his first entry into commercial filmdom, the bloody low-budget "El Mariachi," which still stands as his major work).  This is a cute crime-buster fantasy with a clan of busters, from year-old tot to adults, spending 89-minutes of spy action tasked to save the world.  And - surprise - thanks to a stockpile of futuristic gadgets they do.

Previews of the movie were forbidden, and with good reason:  while the 4D gimmick dismally fails and the film's loaded with supposedly funny toilet humor - puking, diaper bombs, breaking wind, etc. - all is in poor taste; the pace, chaotic action, explosively eager characters, and the wildly imaginative details could entertain anyone under the age of five without it.  (Grade, on that level: about C+).