Robert Rodriguez returns to the family film genre with Shorts, a film that follows the adventures of The Wishing Rock, a magical stone which will grant you any wish you desire. When a group of kids get their hands on it, in no particular order, fun and adventure ensue but never as intended and when the adults realize the existence of the rock things take a turn for the worse. Brought to you in mini-sodes (shorts) every tale has the workings of some great tales of realization from finding friends, finding yourself, and the power of coming together.

If you’ve ever seen the now defunct kids show Eerie Indiana your going to be very familiar with the premise of Shorts. A small town with eccentric townies who all have their little quirks overshadowed only by the truly bizarre things that happen unexpectedly. You’ve got tiny aliens, monsters, and a whole slew of other odd creatures popping up in the film as well as some pretty hilarious human faces (Blinkers anyone?). Kids rule in this world but parents have a little luck with James Spader (Boston Legal), William H. Macy (The Cooler),  Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men), and Leslie Mann (Funny People). While the adult factor doesn’t offer up much entertainment its at least there to give parents a little bit of an anchor as they sit through the film which unfortunately isn’t that great and reasons why as follows.

The film is designed for kids. I get that. But even with the totally even amount of kids versus adults in the theater I don’t recall hearing any kids laugh more then a few times during the entire run of the film, parents either. The shorts are set up like long running jokes looking for the right time to throw out a punch line which is mostly hit and miss. The biggest of problems within the film is the out of order sequence in which the shorts are delivered which gives the short film (89 minutes long) a seemingly never ending feel. Eventually I started wondering if the film was ever going to end. Satisfactory ending or not. Why Rodriguez went this route is beyond me. I loved his Spy Kids films even if they were a little goofy and most of his adult works are fantastic so this let down was surprising. So, if you’ve got kids chances are they’ll enjoy seeing this film, even if they don’t fall out of their seat laughing, but don’t expect them to talk your ear off about it. Enjoy.