Glen Powell and Selena Gomez make their acting debut in this sci-fi thriller Bonkers

Selena Gomez has been acting since she was a little girlShe appeared on “Barney & Friends,” but rose to teen stardom with a recurring role on the Disney Channel series “The Wizards of Waverly Place.” She also has a notable career in pop music, which she began in 2009 with her album “Kiss & Tell” when she was just 17 years old. Not only has her music received numerous awards, but she has continued to work as an actress, having received many awards. She received Emmy Award nominations for her work on the hit show “Only Murders in the Building.”

Meanwhile Glen Powell He has quickly emerged as one of Hollywood’s most charming leading men, having recently appeared in the decent “Twisters,” the blockbuster “Anyone But You,” the more successful “Top Gun: Maverick,” and the impressive comedy/thriller “Hit the Man.” Powell came to public attention in Richard Linklater’s 2016 sports film Everybody Wants Some!!, but he has been working professionally since he was a young man, appearing on several high-profile television shows.

It turns out that Powell and Gomez had a common title in their early films. When Gomez was just 11 years old, and Powell was just 15, they both appeared — in very small roles — in Robert Rodriguez’s 2003 cyber thriller Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, perhaps the strangest A film within a very strange, strange film. Ongoing film franchise. Gomez played a girl at a water park who makes small talk with the film’s hero, Johnny (Daryl Sabara). Later in the film, Powell plays a video game player trapped inside a virtual reality world. Gomez is credited as the “Water Park Girl”. Powell is credited as “the boy with the long fingers.”

The premise of Robert Rodriguez’s “Spy Kids” movies is simple but engaging. The series begins with a pair of young siblings (Sabara and Alexa Vega) who learn that their parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) are top-secret super spies. When their parents are kidnapped, the kids must don their parents’ high-tech spy gear and fly to the rescue. “Spy Kids” is a cartoony, energetic and fun film that was a hit in 2001. It spawned a sequel in 2002, with the third film, “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over”, released in 2003.

“Game Over” was the strangest film ever made up to that point. The film takes place mostly within the virtual world of a high-tech video game where Alexa Vega’s character is held captive by three evil scientists, all of whom are subliminal iterations of Game Maker, a villain played by Sylvester Stallone. Johnny had to enter the simulation and win a series of increasingly difficult video game challenges to save his sister from harm. Inside the simulation, Johnny is constantly mistaken for a legendary player named The Guy, who is said to have enough skill to beat the legendary Level 5.

The film sees the return of Banderas and Cugino, but also has small roles for Steve Buscemi, George Clooney, Elijah Wood, Mike Judge, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo, Tony Shalhoub, and Alan Cumming. It was so The last on-screen role of Ricardo MontalbanWho played Johnny’s grandfather. In the real world, Montalban sits in a wheelchair, but in the video game world, he has a powerful robotic body. The VR simulations are all 3D as well. Unfortunately, the 3D effects were terrible, and were used not with the gray shade polarized lenses of most 3D movies, but with the old red and blue 3D lenses.

Also, the CGI was bad and bad. “Spy Kids 3-D” cost $37 million to produce, all of which supposedly went to talent; Her photos are clearly cheap.

Glen Powell’s role is very small. It seems he is just advertising some offer. He tells Juni that he’s reached the Arena of Misfortune, and that he has to fight a mechanic to get to level 2. Paul, even as a teenager, has the charisma of a game show host, telling Juni to “go out there and fight” with a smile on his face. At the end of a scene Mechanical Battle, Powell returns briefly to take Johnny out to Level 2.

Gomez’s role is a little more surreal. In the early parts of the film, Johnny has already retired from being a spy and now works as a children’s detective. He presents himself in a film noir style narration, complete with soulful saxophone on the soundtrack. He has arrived at a water park to investigate a crime, specifically to locate all the missing water. He approaches a mysterious girl wearing a winter coat and announces that he has solved her case. The girl is Selena Gomez, and she looks like an 11-year-old Russian version of the femme fatale. Apparently, says Johnny, they just turn off all the water slides for the winter. “Who are they?” she asks. “People who truly “You own this place,” Junie says mysteriously. “Oh,” Gomez says. Then I walked out of the movie.

Not a very auspicious innings, but enough to keep both young men employed. Also, the “Spy Kids” movies were hugely important in the 2000s, so they would likely have been chosen for their roles over many other hopeful child actors.

“Spy Kids 3-D” wasn’t reviewed very well, but it grossed $197 million at the box office, so everyone had to come out with money in their pockets. The most recent movie, “Spy Kids,” was released in 2023.