Review of Shorts (2009) by Keyshla C — 25 Nov 2009

Robert Rodriguez is a pretty proficient director, and back in 2001 he surprised me with his fantastic children's flick Spy Kids. But as the two follow-up films in that series came and went, it seemed that the quality in story telling was slipping. And ever since the disappointing Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, I just didn't have the same sort of faith I did with his kids flicks anymore. Shorts is another showcase of this director's recent bad habits at making children's films, which rely too much on stupid humor and over the top special effects to entertain its young audiences.

Shorts is titled that way because the film is presented as a handful of shorter stories that all correlate to one overall main story. If done right this could have worked in the film's favor, but as is it actually takes away a lot from the experience. Having the film told through a series of short stories would have worked if each story contained different characters who had nothing to do with characters from other stories, but all tied together with the magic rainbow rock they all find that grants wishes. The film is more like a story that should go from point A to point B, but instead scenes are chopped up and put back together out of order. Like Pulp Fiction, just not as good.

I guess I'm getting too demanding with these sorts of films, but I hate it when a movie like Shorts contains so many irritating and stupid characters to fill most of its cast. Toe Thompson (Jimmy Bennett) wasn't a very likable character, and the film doesn't supply much for this character to work with or develop over. And since the film is told out of sequence, it takes away from any sort of interaction and development that could have helped with Toe's relationship with his parents or his sister Stacey (Kate Dennings).

There are a couple gross out moments that are disgusting, and I found it rather difficult to find humor in them. There is a particular youngster named Nose Noseworthy (Jake Short), who is in the habit of picking and eating his boogers. His dad, played by William H. Macy, is a germaphobe who has an invention that accidentally turns one of Nose's boogers into a giant monster. Is this really what passes for kid's entertainment these days?

To top it all off, Shorts ends with one of the weakest and ineffective endings of the year. Instead of trying to have all of these characters learn lessons and actually grow, Shorts delivers a half-assed "let's all work together" ending that resorts back to using special effects to try and fill in the emptiness of the film. While I've admired many of Rodriguez's recent mature audience themed movies, I've pretty much given up on expecting him to deliver another kids flick like the original Spy Kids.