Spy next door

The new family action comedy The Spy Next Door, stars Jackie Chan as Bob Ho, a Chinese superspy on loan to the CIA, living in a suburb of Arizona, pretending to be a pen importer. Bob’s last mission with the CIA, was to track down and catch the Russian terrorist Poldark (Mangus Scheving famous to kids around the world from LazyTown), and with help from his partner Colton James (Billy Ray Cyrus) he achieves this. He then, decides to completely give up his exciting career in espionage, to marry his next-door neighbour/girlfriend Gillian (Amber Valletta).

Gillian has made it clear to Bob that she is part of a ‘package deal’; the person who wishes to marry her, has to accept her and her three children. The children are highly opinionated, free spirited (actually quite wild) and definitely dislike Bob.

When Gillian has to leave town because of a medical emergency with her father, Bob volunteers to babysit her children, in hopes that he will earn their approval.

Bob finds his spy skills and acrobatics coming in very handy, while preparing breakfast, taking the kids to school and even while shopping at the mall.

While snooping around Bob’s house, looking for incriminating clues about him, one of the children mistakenly downloads a top-secret file from Bob’s computer, and suddenly dangerous Russian terrorists are added to this mix, and Bob is now not only dealing with bratty kids, but doing his best to keep these same kids alive.

The story is very predictable from an adult’s point of view, but my children (as well as the other kids in the cinema) didn’t find fault in it. They were captivated from the beginning to the end of the film. They laughed at the silly jokes and wowed at the acrobatics. The Spy Next Door is geared for the pre-teen kids’ film market, and the formula delivered worked in this age group… plus, it was not a painful experience for me; making this a ‘kid & parent approved flick’.

At the end of all Jackie Chan films, I have always enjoyed watching the scenes which were cut out of the film. Normally these are stunts gone wrong, this way the audience can see how difficult it is to execute some of the acrobatic manoeuvres they just watched on the silver screen. Being that this is a constant in all of Jackie Chan’s movies, I waited for it, and instructed my children to remain in their seats while the credits rolled up. They enjoyed watching this part of the film almost as much as the first part; we had a good laugh at the blunders and mishaps. Then, I did a totally ‘mom’ thing and said: “see, those stunts are actually quite dangerous, and people can get hurt; that’s why Jackie includes those scenes, so that kids don’t get hurt.” And with a groan from my oldest, we left the cinema.

The Spy Next Door

Watch trailer here