The Spy Next Door

The Spy Next Door
The Spy Next Door
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Brian Levant
Screenplay by	Jonathan Bernstein; James Greer; Gregory Poirier;
Story by	Jonathan Bernstein; James Greer;
Produced by	Robert Simonds
Starring	Jackie Chan; Amber Valletta; Madeline Carroll; Will Shadley; Magnús Scheving; Billy Ray Cyrus; George Lopez;
Cinematography	Dean Cundey
Edited by	Lawrence Jordan
Music by	David Newman
Production; company	Relativity Media
Distributed by	Lionsgate (United States); Mandate Pictures (International)
Release dates	December 22, 2009 (Denmark); January 15, 2010 (United States);
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$28 million
Box office	$45.2 million

The Spy Next Door is a 2009 American spy action comedy film^[2]^[3] directed by Brian Levant, written by Jonathan Bernstein, James Greer and Gregory Poirier, produced by Robert Simonds with music by David Newman. The film stars Jackie Chan, with a supporting cast of Amber Valletta, Magnús Scheving, Madeline Carroll, Will Shadley, Alina Foley, Billy Ray Cyrus, and George Lopez.

Filming started in late October 2008 in Rio Rancho, New Mexico and was finished in late December 2008. The film tributes Chan's films by showing clips, references and even referencing Chan's real life childhood.

The Spy Next Door was released in Denmark on December 22, 2009, and released in the United States by Lionsgate on January 15, 2010, and also released on DVD and Blu-ray format on May 18, 2010. It received negative reviews from critics and it earned $45.2 million on a $28 million budget.

Plot

Bob Ho is an operative of the CIA as an undercover agent on loan from the Chinese Intelligence, who decides to retire after putting Russian terrorist Anton Poldark behind bars and marry his longtime girlfriend Gillian, who lives next door and has three children from previous relationships, Farren (a step-daughter), Ian and Nora. None of them know about his real job and think he works at a pen-importing company.

One day, Gillian leaves to visit her father in a hospital in Denver, Colorado and leaves Bob to take care of her children, but Farren and Ian despise him and plot to get rid of him. Using technology from the CIA, Bob is able to take control and gradually bond with the children. His partner, Colton James, informs him that Poldark has escaped from jail and they suspect there is a mole in the CIA. Colton sends a file to Bob's computer for a top-secret formula for an oil-eating bacteria Poldark is working on. While snooping around Bob's house, Ian downloads the file, which he mistakes for music, onto his iPod. Poldark discovers the download and sends some of his henchmen to Bob's house, but Bob overpowers them.

After the attack, Bob and the children hide at a Chinese restaurant, where Poldark's teenage henchman, Larry, tries to kill Bob. Bob defeats him and is forced to tell the children about his job. His boss Glaze then arrives, points a gun at him, and demands the downloaded file, revealing himself to be working for Poldark. Bob knocks out Glaze with Nora's turtle, then hides in a hotel with the children. Farren tells Gillian over the phone about Bob's secret. As they wait, Farren stubbornly holds out hope that her biological father will come back to get her so she can have a "real family". Bob tells her that family is more than just sharing blood ties with someone, revealing that he never knew his birth parents and was raised in a Chinese orphanage. As a result, Bob chose to think of everyone else at the orphanage as his family despite not being related to anyone there. Farren realizes that her father is not coming back for her and accepts Ian and Nora as her siblings. Fearing for her children's safety, Gillian flies home to take them back and angrily breaks up with Bob for lying to her.

Bob heads to an abandoned factory to confront the Russian terrorists but finds that Ian, wanting to become a spy, followed him and Farren has run away from home to try and help as well. The three are captured by the Russians, who trick Ian into revealing that the file is on his iPod quite easily since Ian does not know how to handle an interrogation. As Poldark, his partner Tatiana, and Glaze go to Gillian's house, Bob and the children escape and return home, where Poldark and his crew arrive soon after. Bob, Gillian's family, and the terrorists fight, with the children using Bob's hidden gadgets to defeat some of them, and soon after Colton and his crew arrive to arrest the Russians and Glaze. Gillian initially rejects Bob but changes her mind when the kids express their heartfelt approval of him with Farren even calling Gillian "Mom" for the first time. In the end, Bob and Gillian get married. At the altar, Bob confesses to Gillian that Bob is not his real name, which Gillian and her children accept with a laugh.

Cast

Jackie Chan as Bob Ho, a spy for the CIA and Gillian's neighbor, boyfriend, and eventual husband
Amber Valletta as Gillian, Bob's neighbor, girlfriend, and eventual wife
Magnús Scheving as Anton Poldark, a Russian terrorist
Madeline Carroll as Farren, Gillian's 13-year-old stepdaughter
Will Shadley as Ian, Gillian's 9-year-old son
Alina Foley as Nora, Gillian's 4-year-old daughter
Billy Ray Cyrus as Colton James, Bob's partner
George Lopez as Glaze, Bob's corrupt boss
Lucas Till as Larry, a teenager working with Poldark
Katherine Boecher as Tatiana Creel, Poldark's girlfriend and henchman
Tim Connolly as Russian thug
Troy Brenna as Russian thug
Jeff Chase as Russian thug
Mark Kubr as Russian thug
David Mattey as Russian thug
Scott Workman as Russian thug
Esodie Geiger as Principal
Arron Shiver as Scientist
Richard Christie as Judge

Soundtrack

"Secret Agent Man" – Performed by Johnny Rivers
"The Way It Was" – Written and Performed by Daniel May
"Ba Ma De Hua" – Performed by Jackie Chan (theme song of Rob-B-Hood, a film also made by Chan)
"One Way or Another" – Performed by Blondie

Release

Box office

In its first weekend, in the US, The Spy Next Door made $9.7 million in 2,924 theaters, opening at #6. It grossed $12.9 million over the four-day period, ranking #5 on that term. The film grossed $45.1 million on a $28 million budget.^[4]

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 12% based on 89 reviews, with an average rating of 3.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Lacking a script funny enough to cover up for Jackie Chan's fading physical gifts, The Spy Next Door fails on every conceivable level."^[5] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, it holds an average score of 27 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".^[6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.^[7]

Most film critics targeted the film for "lacking a script," and "looking old" such as Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune for being "True Lies without the striptease or the Arab-maiming".^[8] Lael Loewenstein of Variety gave the film a negative review saying the film's "cartoonish jokes and misfired gags are likely to elicit more eye rolls than laughs."^[9] Daniel Eagan of The Hollywood Reporter also disliked the film saying most of the film is "pretty tired stuff from Pacifier-style slapstick to comic relief delivered by, of all people, erstwhile country star Billy Ray Cyrus" and that Chan "seems stiff" and "clad in unattractive clothes and forced into dumbed-down situations."^[10] David Stratton of At the Movies dismissed the film calling it "a sad viewing experience". He added "The woeful screenplay, the mundane direction, by Brian Levant, and the indifferent acting all combine to sink a stupid plot which should never have got off the ground."^[11] Carrie Rickey of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film 2½ stars.^[12] Rickey, giving the film the benefit of the doubt, wrote "The plot may be forgettable, but the execution is frantic and funny. The Spy Next Door is a movie that will bring smiles to kids – and their grandparents."^[12]