“STORY LOOSES ITS SHORTS”
Starring: Jimmy Bennett, Leslie Mann, Jon Cryer, Kat Dennings, Devon Gearhart, Jolie Vanier, Trevor Gagnon, Rebel Rodriguez, Leo Howard, James Spader and William H. Macy
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
MPAA Rating: PG for mild action and some rude humor
Genre: Action/Adventure, Kids/Family
By John Delia
Here is a film called Shorts that was penned and directed by Spy Kids‘ Robert Rodriguez who takes a simple storyline and turns it into a unique movie. Although unique is mostly considered good, in this case the word to me
means extraordinary or odd or strange and unusual. Although the film will have a lot of life from youngsters who are awed by powers from a magical wishing rock, most teens and older will probably come out saying as I did, why did he go though the trouble. Of course, then again, I really didn’t care for Spy Kids either.
The story takes place in a small suburb of a town called Black Falls. Here nearly everyone works for or is involved some way with a company called Black Box Unlimited that makes a communications gadget device called, Black Box. The company’s owner Mr. Black (Spader) is this conniving dictator who basically holds the
town hostage for their jobs. One day he challenges the Thompson’s (Cryer and Mann), a married couple, to separately lead teams to come up with the perfect upgrade to his Black Box with a high reward for the winner and ejection from his town by the looser. When a special rock lands in a nearby field and gets into the hands of the Thompson’s bullied son Toe (Bennett) things start to get weird, wild and sometimes wicked.
I probably would have liked the film more had it not been told in segments, some past and some present. Although this method was somewhat unique, it
tended to bother me rather than entertain. I believe I would have liked the film more if it had played out in regular progression. Boss makes impossible reward proposition to Thompsons, they have a son who is being bullied by Mr. Black’s son and daughter (Vanier), a scientist who is a germ-a-phobic develops a new communication system, and it is all brought together when the Thompson’s son finds a wishing rock.
The acting in the film is quite standard with kid’s films and to me the direction by Rodriguez lacked energy and brilliance. The reason why the film is called
Shorts is because Rodriguez makes one big film out of many short films that are related. Actually, Rodriguez’s brilliance can be seen in his grind house films that are really wacky yet creative. Although children’s films are a mainstay for box office grosses, I believe it’s here with films like Shorts that his art is wasted.
The film really has no undesirable traits but it is rated PG for rude humor like bulling, a lot of humorous sounds and evil wishes.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A fun kids film, with little Adult appeal. (2.5 of 5 Palm Trees)