At a time when decent Hollywood action films are about as rare as a Madonna movie that doesn't go straight to video, this is wasted on the kids.

Rather than opt for a tired rehash of the original premise, Spy Kids supremo Rodriguez has fashioned a fast-paced yarn that leaves comparable adult fare standing.

He's tossed digital 3-D imagery into the trademark espionage caper (you only get the full effect by popping on a pair of special glasses), and cranked up the action to the max.

Pint-sized operative Juni Cortez (Sabara) returns to the Spy Kids fold after dropping out when his sister Carmen (Vega) is captured on a mission.

She is stranded on level four of a virtual reality computer programme - Game Over - that has been created by the evil toymaker (Stallone hamming it up splendidly).

Juni has to be catapulted into cyberspace to rescue his sister and shut down the diabolical game, trapping the toymaker inside.

It all sounds a bit like a poor nerd's Matrix, but there's no portentuous navel gazing here - Rodriguez gets right into the action.

With 3-D glasses firmly in place, the setpieces are as good as anything you'll see, even if the colour tones fluctuate a bit too much for comfort.

The difference is the whole shebang is put together with such playfulness and gentle self-mockery that you're happily along for the ride.

One scene - a supercharged "mega race" along the canyons and elevated highways of a sky-scraping metropolis - would not have looked out of place in a serious sci-fi movie.

And that's not forgetting a winning cameo from George Clooney as US president and a wickedly cheeky sideswipe at Lord of the Rings.

This is everything current blockbusters are not - wry, self-effacing, funny and never letting the sfx overwhelm the story. Don't let the kids have all the fun. See it.

Tim Evans