FIND MOVIES
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

Review: The Spy Next Door

Brian Levant’s cheap misfire
By BRETT MICHEL  |  January 13, 2010
0.5 0.5 Stars

Brian Levant has a real talent. First, the Are We There Yet? helmer helped bring down the career of Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. with 2002's Snow Dogs. Now, he's doing the same for affable Asian action star Jackie Chan.

Let's hope Chan's fans back East never get a whiff of this one. It's pitched at a pre-teen audience — the only kind likely to enjoy Levant's cheap misfire.

On loan to the CIA, undercover Chinese spook Bob Ho (Chan) faces a tough assignment: baby-sitting the disapproving children (Madeline Carroll, Will Shadley, and Alina Foley) of his implausible fiancée, Gillian (Amber Valletta). They think he's a "robot" — and given Chan's lack of interest, I side with the kids, who get in on the espionage when Russian terrorists come knocking. Horrified by Bob's lack of parenting skills, Gillian ends (temporarily) their relationship: "You're never going to see them again!" Doesn't she realize he lives next door?

  Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Culture and Lifestyle, Movies,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: WRECK-IT RALPH  |  October 31, 2012
    John C. Reilly gives a terrific vocal performance in this computer-animated look at the secret lives of video game arcade characters (like Tron by way of Toy Story ), directed by Rich Moore, a veteran helmer of The Simpsons and Futurama .
  •   REVIEW: SILENT HILL: REVELATIONS 3D  |  October 31, 2012
    Silent Hill fans are gluttons for punishment.
  •   REVIEW: CONNED (2010)  |  October 18, 2012
    "What is this, some kinda' fuckin' joke?" These are the first words uttered in writer/director Arthur Luhn's homegrown comedy.
  •   REVIEW: TAKEN 2  |  October 10, 2012
    Retired CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is still trying to remain an active part of the lives of his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).
  •   REVIEW: BUTTER  |  October 11, 2012
    Any real-world comparisons between the Sarah Palin-like Laura Pickler (Jennifer Garner) and her African-American opponent, Destiny (Yara Shahidi), are encouraged in this over-churned movie that presents itself as a "cutthroat story of greed, blackmail, sex, and butter."

 See all articles by: BRETT MICHEL