It's a spirited attempt to recapture the first film’s offbeat appeal, but the end result, while still enjoyable, is decidedly less satisfying.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 21, 2024

... a high energy, high tech wish-fulfillment adventure that empowers its young audience. Rodriguez has the chops of a smart-aleck film school brat and the imagination of a big kid...

| Aug 20, 2023

Move over 007 - there are new kids in town -- the Spy Kids - - and they're here for the long haul.

| Nov 15, 2019

If [it] sounds like the usual preoccupations of pop-culture parody, what lifts it above is Rodriguez's ability to create a self-contained world all of its own restless, wacky, beautiful to look at and with a genuine emotional warmth.

| Jan 30, 2018

Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams is certainly trippy and inventive, but the film is way too long, a little too flat and not nearly as enjoyable as the original.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Jan 29, 2012

Rodriguez seems to be trying too hard to cram in too much - more gadgets, more characters, more noise, more color. But bigger, brighter and faster isn't necessarily better.

| Oct 24, 2011

An imaginatively joyous adventure.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 28, 2010

Rodriguez tends to learn from his mistakes and made a truly superior film to the first.

| Apr 29, 2009

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 3, 2007

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2006

Following up his enormous hit from last year, writer-director Robert Rodriguez does the impossible -- he makes a big Hollywood sequel into a personal pet project.

| May 26, 2006

The best example in recent memory of what happens when an independent-minded director is allowed to exercise his talents with the backing and support of a Hollywood support system.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 6, 2005

How fitting that the subtitle of this sequel is Island of Lost Dreams, for Rodriguez has let his vivid imagination run even more amok in waking, cinematic life.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 7, 2005

Rodriguez's movie, jammed with gizmos and visual effects, looks more like a bigbudget extravaganza from a Hollywood studio than a relatively modest $40 million movie.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 25, 2004

Imaginativo e divertido, explora o talento de seus jovens protagonistas para criar um filme capaz de encantar toda a famlia.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 21, 2003

...just as enjoyable for adults as it is for kids...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 1, 2003

Not quite as charming as the first one.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 14, 2003

The only thing we don't know after watching Spy Kids 2 is whether Robert Rodriguez's constantly churning brain leaves him any time to sleep at night.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 27, 2003

It's going to be a real hoot watching this duo growing up.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 16, 2003

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 10, 2003