The Spy Next Door
Short description
Bob Ho is a CIA operative who has spent years working undercover, and his neighbor Gillian, a single mother of three, has no idea what he really does for a living. He wants to leave the agency behind and settle down with her, but her children have not taken to him. When Gillian has to leave town to be with her hospitalized father, Bob volunteers to look after the kids, hoping the time together will win them over. His plan goes wrong when one of the children downloads a top-secret formula by mistake, drawing the attention of a Russian terrorist who has been a longtime adversary of Bob's. Bob then has to protect the family while keeping his real identity from them.
The film was directed by Brian Levant, whose earlier work includes Beethoven, The Flintstones and Are We There Yet? It was written by Gregory Poirier, Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer, and produced by Robert Simonds. Jackie Chan leads the cast as Bob Ho, with Amber Valletta as Gillian, Madeline Carroll, Will Shadley and Alina Foley as her children, and Magnús Scheving as Poldark. The production had a budget of 28 million dollars and took in about 66 million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 5.9 from 1,455 votes, while on TMDB it has a critics' score of 3.7 from 92 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film references other works by Jackie Chan – in the form of clips and allusions, and even alludes to Jackie Chan's real childhood.
- Filming began in Rio Rancho, one of the largest cities in the state of New Mexico, in late October 2008 and continued until the end of December of the same year.
- Jackie Chan specifically adapted his stunts to suit Bob Ho, the character he played.
- Magnus Scheving, who played the Russian Anton Poldark, is from Iceland, and had to speak English with a Russian accent. This caused certain difficulties in communicating with Jackie Chan, who primarily speaks Chinese.
- At the beginning of the film, there is a montage of clips from other Jackie Chan spy-themed films, in particular “Armour of God II: Operation Condor” (Jackie Chan, 1991), “Rush Hour” (Brett Ratner, 1998) and “Rush Hour 2” (Brett Ratner, 2001), and “The Tuxedo” (Kevin Donovan, 2002).
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