Shorts (PG)

Robert Rodriguez has gone from making hard-boiled Mexican Westerns (El Mariachi and Desperado) to candy-coloured action adventures for all the family (Spy Kids).

No denying his energy, but it's like the energy of a kid with attention deficit disorder: his stories can't settle on anything for more than a few minutes. Shorts virtually acknowledges the problem, being a scattergun ensemble of mini-episodes centred upon the transformational properties of a "Rainbow Rock". This object, passing from one hand to another, has the power to make wishes come true. My own wish: to have been somewhere other than the screening room where this movie was playing.