Jackie Chan has always been a favourite of mine, and watching his new movies during the CNY season is a tradition. So I just had to see The Spy Next Door as soon as possible!
I think that his Chinese movies are still a cut above his Western ones, with a few exceptions. I watched Shinjuku Incident recently for example and it moved me. Reason being of course, is his strong accent when speaking in English. Big fan though I am, I grimaced when watching him plug the movie on the Conan O’ Brien show last week. I guess it’s just something you can’t fix.
The movie premise (James Bond meets Home Alone) has been visited before in The Pacifier with Vin Diesel but hey we all know Jackie is just going to be more entertaining to watch. He’s 55 years old(!!) but he still manages to deliver the laughs. Hey I mean who cares if Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 9%, seriously what do they know! It’s a Jackie Chan movie! Yes it doesn’t make sense that the “terrorists” are conspicuously incompetent and never seem to carry guns, and Jackie has absolutely no chemistry with the romantic interest (I don’t think he ever has since the days of starring alongside Anita Mui and Michelle Yeoh). It’s clearly a movie aimed at kids and it fills that role well. Jackie’s young charges started off with too many scripted wisecracks but grew on me by the end of the movie. And the fight scenes may be a bit less energetic than say, Rumble in the Bronx, but you still go “wow how did he do that?!?” every once in a while.
Oddly enough his accent didn’t seem to get in the way that much this time. I think it had to do with the fact his alter ego was meant to be bumbling and awkward, and you don’t need to use big words on kids anyway. The outtakes showed that language rather than stunts still seems to be Jackie’s biggest challenge in Hollywood movies though.
Fun fact from Carol: The lullaby he sings in the movie is from his previous baby-napping film Rob-B-Hood! She also commented: “He looked younger than he did in Shinjuku Incident - western makeup artists are better!”
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Tags: jackie chan, spy next door
I agree that it’s a great movie!
Some parts are quite touching because jackie chan says it. :)
jackie chan’s movies are always entertaining. :)
i watched it in the weekend too.
Should just stick to writing movie reviews