The Spy Next Door (2010 film)

History of the film

The Spy Next Door is a 2010 American spy comedy family film directed by Brian Levant, written by Jonathan Bernstein, James Greer and Gregory Poirier, produced by Robert Simonds with music by David Newman and starring Jackie Chan, Amber Valletta, Madeline Carroll, Will Shadley, Alina Foley, Magnús Scheving, 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 was released on January 15, 2010 in the United States by Lionsgate. The film was released on DVD, and Blu-ray on May 18, 2010. The film tributes Chan's films by showing clips, references and even referencing Chan's real life childhood. The film received negative reviews from critics and it earned $45.2 million on a $28 million budget.

Synopsis

Bob Ho (Jackie Chan) is a CIA undercover agent who decides to retire after moving next to the beautiful Gillian (Amber Valletta) who has three children from previous relationships. Bob and Gillian then start dating but Bob feels he should tell Gillian about his job. Gillian then goes to visit her father in the hospital and leaves Bob to take care of her kids (Madeline Carroll, Will Shadley and Alina Foley).

Bob takes the children shopping for clothes for Halloween. The problems start when one of the youngsters accidentally downloads a file for a top-secret formula on his computer. They are then threatened by a Russian terrorist and Bob's archenemy Anton Poldark (Magnús Scheving). This forces Bob to combine the roles of spy and prospective stepfather in the biggest challenge that he has faced in his career.

Bob asks Colton James (Billy Ray Cyrus), his spy partner, to help him, but he's not sure he can trust Colton. Bob and his children have a meal in a Chinese restaurant when a teenage henchman of Poldark, Larry (Lucas Till), tries to stab Bob with a cook's knife, but is overpowered and knocked out, smashing through a restaurant window in the fight.

In addition, Bob learns that his boss, Glaze (George Lopez), is actually working for Poldark and the Russians when he pulls a gun at Bob to force him to hand over the file stored on an iPod belonging to Ian, but is knocked out. And worse, the situation is further complicated when Gillian learns the truth about Bob that he is a spy and dumps him.

Bob heads to a former steel manufacturing factory to confront and defeat the terrorists but he then finds that Ian (wanting to follow the footsteps of him) and Farren have run away from home to follow him and they all get tied up and are about to get tortured when Bob escapes, fights and overpowers some of the terrorists, knocking them out.

They go to Gillian's house where the terrorists arrive a few minutes later and begin fighting Bob, trying to kill him and get the iPod containing the file (after Ian had spilled the beans), destroying some appliances and furniture in the process. The children also use Bob's secret weapons to defeat some of the terrorists, including Farren dropping a TV on Larry's head, knocking him unconscious.

Shortly after, the terrorists are arrested. Gillian soon realize that Bob is a good man for protecting them from the terrorists and Nora saying, "I want Bob to be my daddy" Sometime later Bob proposes to Gillian and she accepts. Bob and Gillian then wed.