The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D

Unless your idea of family fun is watching countless chunks of goop being blown toward you amid acid-soaked Nickelodeon landscapes, Robert Rodriguez's second attempt to resurrect this anachronistic ballyhoo gimmick will seem just as misguided as his first (remember the franchise low point, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over?). It doesn't help that the director embeds cut-rate comin'-at-ya tricks in a cloying narrative about an unpopular lad (Boyd) whose dreams of two prepubescent superheroes become an enabling reality. Rodriguez has proved in the past that he's got a knack for crafting imaginative children's movies, which is why this sugarcoated collection of platitudes—"Kids need their dreams!"—seems more than a baby step backward.