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The Spy Next Door

The Spy Next Door (2010)

January. 15,2010
|
5.4
|
PG
| Action Comedy Family

Former CIA spy Bob Ho takes on his toughest assignment to date: looking after his girlfriend's three kids, who haven't exactly warmed to their mom's beau. And when one of the youngsters accidentally downloads a top-secret formula, Bob's longtime nemesis, a Russian terrorist, pays a visit to the family.

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Reviews

Vashirdfel
2010/01/15

Simply A Masterpiece

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StyleSk8r
2010/01/16

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

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Zandra
2010/01/17

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

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Guillelmina
2010/01/18

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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twickes32
2010/01/19

When the film started playing, my expectations were as high as they get with seeing a Jackie Chan be the most neighborly man in history with helping out with taking out the trash. But the moment he went into the Pen Distribution Center and BRC and George Lopez appear as spies, I knew this film was meant for me.The film portrays a retiring Jackie Chan in a victory lap of a film. Although viewed as a prime stuntman and action director in Asia, Jackie's image in the United States and modern film cannon has not been able to shake the image from the Rush Hour films.This metaimage parallels with his depiction in the film as suburban, sweater-wearing "geek" pen importer. An image which was more-so pushed onto the superstar image of Jackie Chan than imparted onto himself. And though it is important to recognize that the acceptance of this image from Chan is a large reason why he is even discussed in modern film and popular culture, it is also vital to recognize the platform which Jackie Chan has crafted by his own doing. A unique genre and character. "What you call boring, I call dependable." Words from the mother of the film echo fans of Chan's directorial work AND his modern films, seeing the incredible impact he has made in the film industry. His uniqueness was often observed as a shtick, incredible stunts which were only passed by Chan's physical age. As his career progressed, his stunt work was seen as more cheesy and expected. The films character type asks for the audience to look further into the stories of those we expect the less from. We may anticipate that we understand those who we live around and grew up with. With Chan's work, we are as short-sighted as the children waiting in the mini-van, debating how Johnny is a drone or a cyborg. We cannot stay in the parked minivan, debating the identity of the people outside the car just looking at their outer image. We must dig deeper as an audience, and understand that the superstar career's such as Chan's are made by people just like us, no matter how indestructible Jackie Chan's stunts have made him seem to be.Timelessness is not only something which can be determined and understood at first viewing. Timelessness requires close inspection, and a relationship with those who are meant to be timeless. As an audience, we dig deeper, and prior to critique, understand the people behind the films.

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TonyMontana96
2010/01/20

(Originally seen many years ago) Jackie Chan's worst film would be an understatement, it's also the one and only Chan outing that has not a single good stunt, the stunts here could have been done by anyone, he was needed. The humour is horrible, there is nothing funny, nothing bearable and nothing free of embarrassment in this dreadful piece of garbage that features god-awful acting, an abysmal screenplay and atrocious fight scenes. Spy Next Door is absolutely horrendous. 0/10

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Sarah Stallworth
2010/01/21

My daughter was watching the movie and I noticed a scene where Jackie Chan was trying to dress the little girl on the floor as she struggled with him.At one point (while she was in her underwear) she is laying directly in front of him on her back and begins kicking him. While doing so, her legs are open and showing a bit more than I felt comfortable with. In a few seconds the camera zooms in and clearly shows between her legs much closer, showing the looseness of the underwear and it was extremely unnecessary.For this reason, I won't give this movie a 10. With the people who had to sign off on the movie before it went to theaters, etc... this should have been spotted and revised.

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TxMike
2010/01/22

When you consider what this movie was made for, its target audience of mainly kids and their parents, it succeeds very well. It is slapstick comedy at its finest, with a bit of family values thrown in while Russian gangsters are after Ho.Jackie Chan, getting very close to 60, is still his youthful self as secret agent Bob Ho. He is retiring from the business, but as we know from watching many TV shows and movies, it is almost impossible to just retire from that kind of business. Your former work has a habit of following you.One thing Bob wants to do is get to know his neighbor Gillian ( Amber Valletta) mom of two girls and a boy. But he really wants to get to know the kids better, they seem to 'hate' him but he needs to get them on his side if he is to marry their mom.The oldest daughter at 13, Madeline Carroll is Farren, who is particularly troublesome. She is rebellious and insists on calling her mom 'Gillian.' We eventually realize it is because Gillian is her step-mom, her dad has left without a trace, and she is an unhappy teen.Perhaps the best actor among the three kids is Will Shadley as Ian. But the youngest, Alina Foley as Nora, who was probably only 5, is maybe the smartest based on interviews in the Blu-ray extras. When asked if she wanted to be an actor when she grew up her answer was straightforward, "I am an actor, and I believe you already know that", with no trace of 'cuteness', just a matter-of-fact answer. But what else would we expect of the daughter of actor Dave Foley? The story gains momentum when Gillian gets word that her dad had to be hospitalized for surgery, she needed to fly out of town, and Bob convinced her he could take care of the three kids. He would just get a few things and move in for a few days. A task he was totally unprepared for, but he learns quickly.At the same time Russian gangsters are after a computer file that was believed to have been sent to Bob's computer by co-worker Billy Ray Cyrus as Colton James. (Cyrus is surprisingly good in this role.) So Bob must both take care of the kids while evading the Russians. Yes, it is an absurd premise but they handle it well for comedy. At the end there is a brief message about "family" being more than just who you are related by blood, as Farren decides to start calling Gillian "mom." This move is not high art, it is not very memorable, but for what it sets out to do, it does in a mostly entertaining way.

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