THE SPY NEXT DOOR is not Jackie Chan’s finest gig, but it’s not his worst either. You gotta watch this movie with a family friendly, kid-happy mindset otherwise… you’ll be miserable through the entire plot. I had the lowest expectation but turns out, it’s not disappointing because it’s fairly enjoyable and Chan still retains some of his good old fighting-to-escape comedy style that made him iconic.
Lionsgate’s family action comedy “The Spy Next Door” stars Jackie Chan as Bob Ho, an undercover CIA superspy who decides to give up his career in espionage to settle down with his next-door neighbor and girlfriend, Gillian (Amber Valletta). But Bob has one more mission to complete before Gillian agrees to marry him: winning over her three opinionated kids.
When Gillian suddenly has to leave town, Bob volunteers to babysit the children so he can earn their approval. But when one of the kids mistakenly downloads a top-secret formula from his computer, Bob’s archenemy, a Russian terrorist, moves in for the attack, forcing Bob to juggle the roles of spy and prospective stepfather in the most challenging mission of his career!
The intro credit itself is amusing because if you’ve been a Jackie Chan fan all your life, you’d recognize some of the shots that they use in the montage, shots from his previous movies, some are spy-related, some are just from his old Hong Kong gigs back in the day when he was younger. It’s quite nostalgic and amusing.
THE SPY NEXT DOOR has what I’d call the Aww moments, mostly would work on those easily moved by a cute kid or cheesy heartwarming lines but it’s nothing that’s necessarily hurtful because the movie intends to be enjoyed by families and it does exactly that, successfully I might add. The fight scenes are creative and funny, nothing about them is too scary for the kids, even when there’s a big knife involved or a bunch of bad guys getting kicked in the head or bullets flying, the surprise elements are mild.
The stuntwork is impressive and entertaining. That is at least one thing that you can always anticipate from a Jackie Chan movie and go home satisfied. If I were to choose one weakness that stands out, it’s Billy Ray Cyrus, who on earth told him that he could be on the big screen? Who gave him that memo?
Can Jackie Chan act? you’ll be the judge because there are scenes in this movie that would make you believe he could do more than just martial art, on the other hand, and I’ll try to put this in a nice way, his thick accent gets in the way sometimes but that also helps in making you laugh. As a spy/babysitter, Chan really wants to connect with the kids and he seems genuine in his performance.
I’m not gonna drag this review any longer, if you don’t like THE SPY NEXT DOOR, it’s because you’re not the target audience.
* Place the cursor on the image below to check my grade for this film
