At The Movies: Dulled horror in All Fun And Games, Spy Kids: Armageddon a cute family romp

All Fun And Games (NC16)

76 minutes, opens on Thursday

2 stars

The story: A cursed knife, discovered by chance, condemns three siblings to participate in malign versions of the old-school games hangman, tag and hide-and-seek where if they lose, they die.

“I Will Play, I Won’t Quit” is the incantation carved into the sinister blade – and an empty promise of All Fun And Games. The games are carelessly played. They barely get under way.

The perverse concept of childhood fun being death traps has no follow-through in a standard teen slasher horror that is further dulled by an expository info dump on the knife’s origin: The town is present-day Salem, Massachusetts, so 17th-century witchcraft is predictably behind the misfortunes.

The Fletchers are a troubled family, and their frayed relationships are the movie’s strongest element.

Dad is long gone. Mum (Annabeth Gish) has added a late shift at work to make ends meet, leaving Marcus (Asa Butterfield), Billie (Natalia Dyer), their little brother Jo (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and two friends on their own the night they unwittingly summon the demon.

Marcus is soon possessed.

With glassy eyes and the knife for weapon, he pursues the others out into the woods and back into the house, at which point the only game is one of everybody running away from him to avoid being killed.

Ari Costa was an associate producer on Anthony and Joe Russo’s Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbusters Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), and the Russo brothers have returned the favour by executive-producing Costa’s co-directing and co-writing debut with Eren Celeboglu.

Hot take: Juveniles get into more dumb trouble with the afterlife. Can they blame moviegoers for being jaded?

Spy Kids: Armageddon (PG)

109 minutes, available on Netflix

3 stars

The story: When power-mad game developer Rey “The King” Kingston (Billy Magnussen) gains possession of a code that can control all technology, two children of a super-spy couple become spies themselves to save the planet.

Texas-based film-maker Robert Rodriguez returns for a fifth Spy Kids feature after 12 years, rebooting his beloved early 2000s kiddie franchise with a new cast of characters for a next generation weaned on iPads and Nintendos.

Spy Kids: Armageddon introduces the Tango-Torrez clan of elite agents Terrence (Zachary Levi) and Nora (Gina Rodriguez) and their totes adorbs tots: rebellious Tony (Connor Esterson) and virtuous Patty (Everly Carganilla).

Dad has limited their screen time at home.

Good thing Tony has been sneaking around the restrictions to level up his tech skills because The King has turned the world into a retro-futuristic video game and abducted their parents.

Who except the Tango-Torrez juniors can get to The King’s castle and defeat the CGI monsters in a final battle on a lava river?

Robert Rodriguez understands what children want, which is to be the heroes of their own fantasy games, and this fun adventure – complete with skeleton army, cool gadgets, spy suits and an underwater safe house – is aimed squarely at pre-teens.

He is again the director, writer, editor, cinematographer and special effects supervisor, producing in partnership with Netflix, which hosted his 2018 Spy Kids: Mission Critical animation series. One of his sons, Racer Max, co-scripted, while another, Rebel, composed the score.

In a wholesome series all about family, even The King is not really evil – he merely has daddy issues.

Hot take: This cute romp is the very definition of family entertainment.