Author: Craig

Film Review: ‘Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over’

Craig / / 2003, Spy Kids 3D
Film Review: ‘Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over’
Mon Jul 21,12:33 AM ET

By Sheri Linden

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The quaint subgenre of 3-D cinema gets a dazzling dust-off with the third installment of Robert Rodriguez‘s terrific “Spy Kids” films, a bracing plunge into virtual reality that will introduce a new generation to the wonders of those magically goofy red-and-blue anaglyph glasses.

As with its two predecessors, “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over” bears a wealth of imaginative riches and a signature mix of outre personalities and gadgets.

Still, fans of the first two films might find the human element somewhat lacking; though the gang’s all back, most of the adult actors are onscreen only for cameos, including the toplined Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino.

The film really belongs to 11-year-old Daryl Sabara as Juni, the youngest of the daring Cortez family, and mainly to the CG effects. That makes sense given that Rodriguez, who handles a multitude of technical and creative chores on his movies, conceived of the film less as a sequel than as a journey into three-dimensional filmmaking.

The first major U.S. theatrical release to use 3-D since 1991’s “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare,” “Game Over” utilizes the lightweight, high-resolution cameras James Cameron and Pace Technologies developed to shoot his documentary “Ghosts of the Abyss.”

Like the first two “Spy Kids” adventures, this one will appeal to children and adults alike and should, after strong play at the boxoffice that likely will top the second film’s take, have a long 2-D life on video.

Joining the regulars this time around are Sylvester Stallone, Salma Hayek, George Clooney, Elijah Wood and a quartet of talented youngsters, with the entire cast’s spirited work especially impressive considering that everybody acted in front of a green screen.

Explaining the 3-D experience to initiates in the audience is Alan Cumming, reprising his role as kids show personality/inventor Floop, in an opening sequence that makes wonderful use of layered effects via a pop-up book.

The main action finds Juni working as a PI — complete with droll, noirish voice-over — having left behind his work as a secret agent. But soon enough the OSS summons him back for a mission of supreme importance: retrieving his older sister, hacker par excellence Carmen (Alexa Vega), who is trapped in the ultimate video game, “Game Over.”

The agency had sent Carmen to destroy the game, which is a vehicle for its creator, the Toymaker (Stallone), to take over the minds of kids everywhere.

Stallone has fun with the role of the evil genius, who debates his plan for world domination with three disparate aspects of himself — one of whom has a blatantly false bald pate, a comical touch in light of the film’s super-slick visuals.

To join him on the expedition, Juni chooses his paraplegic grandpa (Ricardo Montalban) for his upper-body strength and mental agility — a nice lesson in open-mindedness that is reinforced later in the film without being heavy-handed or cloying.

Back at agency HQ, the Giggles (Mike Judge and a pigtailed Hayek) monitor the duo’s progress through the game’s five levels, while four beta testers (Ryan James Pinkston, Robert Vito, Bobby Edner and Courtney Jines) guide them through the futuristic cityscapes and abstract tableaux.

Among the challenges our heroes encounter are pogo-ing toads, monstrous iron men and various floating and flying objects that will have youngsters reaching up to grab them. Two especially effective set pieces are a breathtaking road race and a lava-surfing episode.

It isn’t until an hour into the film that Juni reaches Carmen, and just when the rest of the gang’s all here, whetting the appetite for ensemble high jinks, it’s game over.

There’s a refreshing message about revenge, relating to Grandfather’s history with the Toymaker, and a nicely nontraditional salute to the importance of family — but the latter begs the question: Where was everyone in this extended family for the last hour and a half?

Although the film’s concision stands as sharp rebuke to some of this summer’s more unwieldy actioners, it’s a letdown that most of the wacky, colorful characters don’t get to do much.

In tribute to two of the most appealing kid actors around, there are post-credits snippets of Vega and Sabara‘s screen tests for the first “Spy Kids,” way back in the 20th century.

Miramax/Dimension Films, produced by Troublemaker Studios

CAST

Gregorio Cortez: Antonio Banderas; Ingrid Cortez: Carla Gugino; Carmen Cortez: Alexa Vega; Juni Cortez: Daryl Sabara; Grandfather: Ricardo Montalban; Toymaker: Sylvester Stallone; Donnagon Giggles: Mike Judge; Cesca Giggles: Salma Hayek; Gary Giggles: Matt O’Leary; Gerti Giggles: Emily Osment; Arnold: Ryan James Pinkston; Rez: Robert Vito; Francis: Bobby Edner; Demetra: Courtney Jines.

CREDITS

Director/screenwriter/editor/director of photography/production designer: Robert Rodriguez; Producers: Elizabeth Avellan, Robert Rodriguez; Executive producers: Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein; Music: Robert Rodriguez; Costume designer: Nina Proctor.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Yo, Toymaker: Sly Turns Evil

Craig / / 2003, Spy Kids 3D

From the Toronto Star July 20, 2003 1:00 AM

Yo, Toymaker: Sly turns evil
Spy Kids 3-D casts Stallone as villain

Sly’s kids delighted Dad, 57, is in cool film

PETER HOWELL
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Sylvester Stallone may be best known as Rocky and Rambo, but did you know that he once earned a mere $200 in 1970 to star as a sex-crazed gigolo in the movie The Party At Kitty And Studs?

Since then the native New Yorker born Michael Sylvester Enzio Stallone (on the same day as President George W. Bush) has returned to the screen more than 50 times and recently begun oil painting in his spare time.

Stallone‘s other passion is his five children: Sage, 27, and Seargeoh, 24, with second wife Sasha Czack and Sophia, 6, Sistine, 5, and Scarlet, 1, with current wife Jennifer Flavin.

They couldn’t have been happier to hear that Dad, now 57, was cast in the new family adventure movie Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, opening Friday. He plays the Toymaker, an evil villain looking to trap unsuspecting kids inside the world’s most complex online video game.

Need to know more about the self-proclaimed Italian Stallion? Here’s a quick guide to everything Sly.

He loves kids: “It’s great to eat peanuts off their heads,” jokes Stallone, who developed a special appreciation for his Spy Kids co-stars Daryl Sabara, 11, and Alexa Vega, 14. “It is great to be taking photos with them. My status goes up when I take my kids to grade school and I am now the Toymaker. In other words, my image has been upgraded by hanging out with (Spy Kids characters) Juni and Carmen.”

He’s not as good at video games: “I have never made it past Level 1 in my own Rocky game,” he admits. “I have been knocked out by Spiderico 35 times! I can’t get past Level 1. I said, `This is kind of like true life…’ But I watch my daughters play. My voyage into video games is pretty superficial. I get stuck on Hello, Kitty.”

He’s a good sport: Especially when other stars mimic his famous line “Yo, Adrian.”(“Robin Williams does it really well,” he says.) In Spy Kids 3-D,George Clooney does his best impersonation. “I had to figure out how to get back at George,” Stallone says. “What can I do to mock him? Should I just … be handsome?”

He plans to direct: Stallone is currently on pre-production of Rampart Scandal, a drama exploring the recently uncovered corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department. “It’s a sensitive area, a real tinder box,” he says. “So often stories like this get told 25 years down the line … and it’s like, as great as J.F.K. was, a lot of the facts had to be director-interpreted. Did it happen? Did it not happen? And there were lawsuits about that. This, everything in the script is real and it’s extraordinary.”

He’s already working on Rocky VI: “I’ve done the script. It’s called Puncher’s Chance. Now it’s just a matter of MGM, and if they want to go through with it,” he says. “Rocky movies, when they do work, are really not about boxing. They are about the story itself and how can you apply it to your everyday life. The last thing you ever lose in your life, if you’re an athlete, is your punch. That’s the way I try to live my life.”

He plans to open a casino: Stallone is a major investor in The Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino, due to open in Las Vegas by the end of next year, promising the resort will bring a touch of Hollywood to Sin City. “[We’re planning] movie premieres, charity events, tournaments … it is not just family-oriented.”

He’s got game: “I recently got into a competition with [tennis ace] Pete Sampras to see who could throw a 16-pound medicine ball farther,” Stallone explains. “He said he could beat me any time on the tennis court in anything, so I brought a medicine ball instead of a tennis racquet. I said, `Let’s see how far you can throw this ball across the net.’

“You stand at one line and you try to throw it backward over your head and over the net. And I won. I got it about 6 feet past the net and he got it about 4 feet. Considering I am the world’s worst athlete and he is the best, I took that as being a great thing. I could be his father. It’s equivalent to me being beaten by an 85-year-old guy.”

And he’s an avid golfer: With a seven handicap, who enjoys playing 18 holes at L.A.’s Riviera Country Club in his down time. There’s just one problem — the California sun. “Night golf to me would be paradise,” Stallone says. “That’s when I’ll know I’ve gone to heaven: night golf. Eat dinner and play golf. How great would that be?”

– Craig Zablo

Sly from A Lot of Sly

Craig / / 2003

A few months ago I worked out a deal for some magazines from Alexandre who runs the Lot of Sly website. Once he got my payment, he said I had sent him too much money and that he was going to send me a refund. I told him to keep it. He finally agreed to but said that he would send me a surprise. Yesterday I received the above photo in the mail. Alexandre took the picture himself when he saw Sly in France and he was kind enough to send me a print! Thanks Alex for the picture and the great job you do with Lot of Sly!

– Craig Zablo

Will there be another “Rocky”?

Craig / / 2003, Celebs, Rocky 6, Shade, Spy Kids 3D

In the July 20, 2003 Who’s News section of USA Weekend the following appeared:

Q: Is Sylvester Stallone really working on another “Rocky” movie? Angel Moll, Bellingham, Mass.

Yes. Stallone, 57, now is writing a script that will have sensitive boxer Rocky Balboa jumping into the ring for a sixth time [it’s been a while; “Rocky V” came out in 1990]. Meanwhile, Stallone can be seen as the villain in “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over” next weekend. The role of the baddie is a switch for the actor, one that’ll no doubt tickle his three daughters with third wife Jennifer Flavin [Sophia, 6, Sistine, 5, and Scarlet, 1]. The Los Angeles-based star, who has two older children from his first marriage, also is waiting to see whether “Shade,” an independent con-man caper he filmed with Melanie Griffith will be released.

– Craig Zablo

“Thugz Lives”

Craig / / 2003, Unmade Films

From Ananova.com 14:29 Thursday 17th July 2003

Stallone working on film about Biggie and Tupac

Sylvester Stallone is working on a film about the deaths of rappers Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur.

The film will go into the alleged LA Police Department corruption scandal that lurks beneath the story.

Stallone says he’ll direct and star in the film, which he’s provisionally calling Thugz Lives, reports Radio 1.

It will centre on the theory that Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur were killed as part of a gang-police-rap power triangle.

He says most of the cast will be from the hip-hop community, and he realises the soundtrack’s going to be crucial to the film.

Stallone says: “The hip-hop soundtrack would push the story along also.”

“It’s gonna conjure up memories, because we have to use Tupac, Biggie, you have to use music from that era, and then kind of segue into new stuff, but it’s got to have the feel of stuff from ’97, so it’s more old skool.”

Story filed: 14:29 Thursday 17th July 2003

I think that “Thugz LIves” might be an even better title than “Rampart Scandal.”

– Craig Zablo

Will There be Another “Rambo” ?

Craig / / 2003, Rambo 4

On Wednesday, July 16, 2003, Garth at Dark Horizons posted the following:

Rambo IV: “There is alot of talk about Rambo IV. If the story is right, then yeah I would do it, but firing a M-60 and wearing a red bandana around my head is not the Rambo I want to play in 2003. It would have to be like First Blood” said Stallone this week whilst promoting “Spy Kids 3D”.

– Craig Zablo

Empire Picks “Rocky 4” As Moment to Make a Grown Man Cry

Craig / / 2003, Rocky 4

Earnest “Jazzman” Resendes sent in the picture above with the following info: The current [July 2003] issue of EMPIREmagazine has a piece called ’50 Movie Moments to Make a Grown Man Cry’! “Rocky IV” is listed as #41. Really good choice I thought but I would say Mickey’s death is an even better choice.

Anyway, they list various icons and apply them to each film. According to to EMPIRE, ROCKY VI’s RIP icon means “death” and the beers mean ” brotherhood”…


I couldn’t agree with you more, Jazz! Thanks for sharing.

– Craig Zablo