If you’ve seen “The Pacifier” starring Vin Diesel, you’ve essentially seen Jackie Chan’s “The Spy Next Door”. It’s a flick with a lot of goofball humor, a little heart and zero script. But for the most part, the likeability of Chan was enough to keep me engaged, plus my kids loved it.
Bob Ho (Chan) is one of the baddest Chinese superspies out there and now he’s on loan to the CIA. But as with every movie of a man on the verge of settling down, he has one last mission before he calls it quits, and that mission goes awry. At the same time, Bob is ready to pop the question to Gillian (Amber Valletta), but he has to go a long way to win over her three children Farren (Madeline Carroll), Ian (Will Shadley) and Nora (Alina Foley).
Gillian is called away to tend to her ailing father and Bob is thrust into the most dangerous mission of his career – babysitting his possible future step-children. Bob’s feeling his way through the first hours of baby-sitting are the funniest of the movie.
Bob’s CIA chums Glaze (George Lopez) and Colton (Billy Ray Cyrus) — yes folks, that Billy Ray Cyrus — are by his side every step of the way, but when Russians descend on his girlfriend’s house, Bob soon finds that one of them is a traitor.
The Russians are after an ultra secret formula that when produced, a single drop can gobble up oil completely. With the technology, the baddies can do away with the world’s oil reserves, thus making the world reliant on Russian oil, resulting in a fortune for those involved.
The file was sent to Bob by the agency, but Ian accidentally downloads it, thinking he’s downloading a concert off the spy’s computer. Now the children are in danger and the squad must hit the road to escape the Ruskies.
One of the scenes I loved was a possible homage to Steven Spielberg’s E.T. It might have been completely unintentional, but when Russians track Bob and the kids back to their house, it’s Halloween and the kid’s Mom is wearing a leopard print cat costume, much the same as Dee Wallace donned in E.T. And let me tell you, that scene brought back some memories and awkward feelings that a seven-year-old version of myself experienced. Good times.
The ending of the flick is nicely tied together in a super sweet package, which is something that really bothered me. I knew what the outcome would be, but I thought director Brian Levant could have taken a little more time and delivered more of an impactful ending. However, he chose not to.
The movie has all the fun of a typical Chan film. The stunts are all there, but I was a little disappointed in the amount of obvious wire work. The thing I love about Chan is the fact that his stunts are always physical, but some of them were way too over the top to be believable. Still, Chan is one of the most likeable stars in Hollywood and I would actually love to see him play a much darker role in the future.
I am a huge fan of Madeline Carroll. I was first introduced to this young actress in “Swing Vote” and loved her and was impressed with her voice work in “Astro Boy”. Sometimes it’s hard to gauge whether a young actor has staying power, but I think if we underestimate this young actress, we’re selling her short. It’s obvious she has the goods and hopefully we’ll see Carroll for years to come.
The disc features three goodies, a featurette of Jackie Chan, a roundtable featurette with the kids in from the movie and the blooper reel you see as the credits roll.
While it might not appeal to every adult, the humor and action are extremely kid-friendly, and if my kids were any indication, young ones will eat it up.
Movie: 3.5 Yaps Extras: 3.5 Yaps