Movie Review: The Spy Next Door (2010) seen in theatres, on DVD as well as numerous streaming platforms

Comedy; some scenes my not be suitable for young children; violence and mature themes

This movie follows a spy, (played by Jackie Chan,) who attempts to retire from his post in order to have a normal life as he hopes to marry his girlfriend, (played by Amber Valletta,) while trying to get her kids to accept him. He eventually tries his hand at doing this by taking on a new mission, babysitting them as their mother is called away.

The movie opens with the normal routine of the children acting out and waking their mother up in the process. As they are leaving for school that morning, the children witness their mother in an embrace with Bob, (played by Jackie Chan,) where the oldest daughter expresses her dislike for him. After the children overhear of their mother’s plans to marry him, they decide they need to take matters into their own hands by getting rid of him.

On a dinner date one night, Bob attempts to deliver the news of his job only to be called away on a work emergency, promising to deliver the news the next day.

He arrives at their house the next morning where he manages to use his spy expertise to rescue the family cat from the roof. When his girlfriend suddenly is called away on an emergency, Bob offers to watch the kids until she returns, which she agrees to despite some apprehension.

Though his first night with the children is hectic, as they act out against each other and the youngest one refuses to go to bed without being hyper, Bob tells his girlfriend when she calls that the night went smoothly. He finds himself needing to use his high tech gadgets in order to get the children to cooperate.

Eventually, Bob’s profession is revealed to the children after he realizes the older man the oldest daughter is attracted to is masquerading as one of the associates who is working for his rival and he must engage in a fight to save them in the middle of a restaurant.

When the children’s mother catches wind of this, she rushes home and ends the relationship with him, fearing for her children’s safety. However, as the young son has taken a liking to him during his time with them, he runs away and finds Bob only to be captured by the rival group. The eldest daughter soon finds herself caught by the group as well.

Eventually, the group of people working against him find themselves at the children’s house where the family is forced to fight them off. This leads to a couple of comedic scenes where the mother is shown to be annoyed at Bob for not telling her about his job earlier and she slams doors on them, knocking them out as well as knocking out the bad guy while continuing to argue with him.

The movie ends with the group being captured. As Bob attempts to leave, one by one, the children are able to convince their mother that they were wrong about Bob and she forgives him. The wedding between Bob and the mother is shown as the credits roll.

You know, one of the biggest problems I have is comparing every Chinese person I meet in real life to Jackie Chan, especially if the have the same type of accent as he does. As anyone can imagine, this is viewed as racist and inappropriate by those around me. After seeing this movie for the first time, I would think to myself, (without saying it out loud,) “Is this guy really a spy?” while quietly believing him to be Jackie Chan himself if the person is Chinese. Having said that, Jackie Chan was the most recognizable person who is Chinese that I knew growing up and to date, I have not seem him in a movie where there hasn’t been some sort of action sequence. However, his performance in the movie “The Foreigner” didn’t live up to my expectations. He did a really good job in this movie though.

The movie also sends a positive message to those children who live with step parents and whose step parents act as that child’s primary caregiver. Midway through the film, it is revealed that the oldest daughter, (who is shown to have a rough relationship with the mother throughout the film,) is actually just a step daughter and step sister. This makes her feel as if she doesn’t belong and she is shown to miss her real parents by the way she acts, (refusing to participate in family activities, wanting to be left alone, ETC.) In one scene after the relationship ends with Bob, she tells him he is lucky because she feels that she doesn’t belong in the family. Bob gave her a lesson in regards to this in his response. “Family isn’t whose blood you carry. It’s who you love and who loves you,” as he cites his own personal experience as a child having never known his real parents and having grown up in foster care. In my opinion, she helped the mother rekindle with Bob by the end of this film by referring to her as “mom” and thus showing her acceptance to the situation as she realizes that Bob was right and that her family was right in front of her the whole time as they were the ones who loved her.

I would recommend this movie

Movie rating: 8 out of 10