Review: Shorts

After trying the non-linear narrative structure out in his more adult works, Robert Rodriguez tries it out in his latest children's film: Shorts. Rodriguez has had mixed success with children's films from the great original Spy Kids film to the awful Sharkboy and LavaGirl. In my opinion Shorts falls in the middle of these two.

Initially a good idea, this film falls down in its final tbird when everybody decides to learn a lesson about themselves. However before that there is a lot of fun to be had and if your immature enough to laugh at animal poo and giant snot that comes to life then you'll like this. There are also some more mature gags for the adults watching.

The young actors all play their parts well and there is a nice ensemble of adult actors let by the wonderful James Spader as the odious Mr. Black and William H Macy as the germ-obssessed scientist. Less useful is Kat Dennings, who seems to be there just to fil time, as the sister of the main character and Jon Cryer and Leslie Mann have little to do as his parents.

As you would expect from a Rodriguez kids film this is visually extremely powerful almost too much at some points but overall I thought this was enjoyable enough to be watched at least once by everyone with an overactive imagination.