Martial arts master Jackie Chan takes on the role of a babysitting undercover spy in director Brian Levant's latest family actioner, The Spy Next Door. Can Chan win over three opinionated kids, defeat some evil Russian's and still kick it at 55? Find out what we thought after the jump...
The Spy Next Door (PG)Starring: Jackie Chan, Amber Valetta, Bill Ray Cyrus, George Lopez
Director: Brian Levant
Film length: 105 minutes
Trailer: Watch it here
In a nutshell: If you thought Jackie Chan had exhausted all his talents on-screen be prepared to witness a new one – babysitting. The Spy Next Door sees Chan take on the role of agent Bob Ho, an undercover spy, who decides to retire in order to have a normal life with his girlfriend Gillian (Amber Valletta) and her three kids (Madeline Carroll, Will Shadley, and Alina Foley). Only the kids find Ho boring, and retiring from the spy world is no mean feat. Cue dangerous encounters and Chan's martial arts scenes.
What's good about it? It's definitely easy viewing and if you're a Jackie Chan fan then you'll still get your fix of comedic fight scenes and stunts. At the age of 55 he's a tad less agile and fights with a coat on throughout most of the movie, but he still seems to do his own stunts. The child actors and the miniature pig are decidedly cute, if that counts for much?
What's not so good? Besides the somewhat expected unmoving acting and predictable storyline we found other nuggets to dislike, like the cringe worthy moment when Chan tries to counsel a stroppy teenager on a roof under a starlight sky. Plus Billy Ray Cyrus - who could begin to take that blow-dried and highlighted coiffe seriously? And don't even get us started on the villains; we think they were meant to be funny but the bad Russian accents failed to amuse.
Verdict: The film is titled a "family action comedy". It has elements of all three, but does none spectacularly. The Spy Next Door is bland, unassuming stuff for kiddies but that said few family films have Jackie Chan at their disposal and it did manage to make us chuckle more than once.
Rating: 5 out of 10