Of all the movies that they could make four of… why does Spy Kids 4 get to be the one that happens? The first couple were decent… and yes, I understand that I’m not the target audience for the movies. That said, there are plenty of great and interesting “kids” movies out there that I appreciate and even consider some of my favorites.

This one just seems like more of a contractual obligation. In the new movie, there are new spy kids… because the old spy kids are… well, old.

The new kids are the children of Joel McHale and the step children of his new wife, Jessica Alba. What they don’t know is that Alba is a spy and when things go wonky, they need to make the kids into, you guessed it, spy kids!

The older Spy Kids, Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara also feature into the story are they pass the torch or whatever… On the upside, you do get Jeremy Piven as a bad guy and Ricky Gervais as a dog.

Here’s the official synopsis:

On the surface, Marissa Cortez Wilson (Jessica Alba) has it all…married to a famous spy hunting television reporter, a new baby and intelligent twin step kids. But in reality, trying to mother Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil (Mason Cook), who clearly don’t want her around, is her toughest challenge yet. Also, her husband, Wilbur (Joel McHale), wouldn’t know a spy if he lived with one which is exactly the case – Marissa’s a retired secret agent.

Marissa’s world is turned upside down when the maniacal Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven) threatens to take over the planet and she’s called back into action by the head of OSS, home of the greatest spies and where the now-defunct Spy Kids division was created. With Armageddon quickly approaching, Rebecca and Cecil are thrust into action when they learn their boring stepmom was once a top agent and now the world’s most competitive ten year olds are forced to put their bickering aside and rely on their wits. With a little help from a couple of very familiar Spy Kids, Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara), and some mind-blowing gadgets, they just may be able to save the world and possibly bring their family together while they’re at it.