Line #15 Film/TheSpyNextDoor


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spy_next_door.png]]
2	Creator/JackieChan's only movie aimed directly at kids, rather than families. It stars Music/BillyRayCyrus and Creator/GeorgeLopez, Amber Valleta (as Gillian) from ''Gamer'' and ''The Transporter 2'' and three kids. Later in 2010, Chan made the much better-received ''Film/{{The Karate Kid\|2010}}''.
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4	It follows Bob Ho (Chan), a CIA agent who retires so that he can spend more time with his girlfriend, Gillian, who lives next door, and her three kids ( Nora, Farren, and Ian). When Gillian goes away to visit her father in the hospital, Bob agrees to babysit the children. HilarityEnsues. However, a plot by Russian spies looking for a stolen secret formula they believe Ho has threatens to put the entire family, and the world, in danger.
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6	----
7	!!This film provides examples of:
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9	* ActionHeroBabysitter: Bob Ho, of course.
10	* AlmostKiss: Bob and Gillian almost kiss in the beginning but Gillian interrupts with "We got an audience", referencing the kids.
11	* BilingualBonus: Bob singing lullabies to Nora in Chinese. Doubles as TheCastShowoff due to Creator/JackieChan's classically-trained and seldom-used singing pipes.
12	* BrattyHalfPint: Pretty much all of the kids. Even their own mother can't deal with them.
13	** Farren is easily the worst offender. Ian and Nora warm up to Bob pretty quickly, but Farren acts like a complete brat in comparison. Arguably it could be because she's a teenager, but she generally comes off as an awful person.
14	* CallingParentsByTheirName: Bob notices that Farren calls Gillian by her first name instead of "mom". When he talks to Farren about this, she explains that it is because Gillian is not her birth mom, but her stepmom.
15	* CutLexLuthorACheck: The oil-eating bacteria would be very useful in the Gulf of Mexico or some other major oil spill - or as a [[MundaneUtility slimming product]].
16	* DisappearedDad [[spoiler: Farren's biological father, who abandoned her, leaving her with Gillian.]]
17	* EverybodyWasKungFuFighting: Every single villain knows martial arts.
18	* EveryoneOwnsAMac
19	%%* EvilCounterpart: Anton Poldark to Bob Ho, Tatiana Creel to Gillian, Glaze to Colton James. Downplayed with Larry and Farren.
20	* ExtremeDoormat: Bob acts [[LawfulPushover as a]] {{pushover\|Parents}} to the kids, '''especially''' Farren, with whom he has [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter no idea]] is trying to ''run'' him out of the family, he acts soft and passive to the kids rather than strict and stern person in authority, and that the kids have to ''respect'' him as an adult. The only people he ''isn't'' lenient to are ''criminals''.
21	* HarmlessVillain: The main villain is more of a comical character than anything, not doing anything to pose as scary. Would qualify as {{Laughably Evil}} if his 'jokes' were actually funny.
22	* HeadSmashesScreen: Farren calls out to Larry as she drops a TV set from upstairs, making him look up as the glass crashes into his face, knocking him down with his head in the set.
23	* ImAHumanitarian: Ian feeds leftover bacon to ''their pet pig.'' The bacon is really just "Beggin' Strips".
24	--> '''Farren''': "Okay, that's just wrong."
25	* JerkassHasAPoint: Farren does have a point that when Bob came over to their house prior to the movie's events, it was only to see Gillian; he never even spoke to the kids. It's really kind of a CluelessAesop, though: we are given ample evidence that the kids ''avoid Bob like the plague'', so how is he supposed to "speak to them" in the first place? If anyone's to blame, it's Gillian for never talking about the kids!
26	* MamaBear: Gillian is capable of some rather offhanded violence when she thinks the kids are in danger, from dragging a guy away from her cab
27	* TheMole: [[spoiler: George Lopez' character turns out to be a villain near the end.]]
28	* MsFanservice: Farren wants to be this, but obviously neither Bob nor Gillian are going to allow a 13 year old to be so.
29	* MundaneUtility: Bob gets a mini-flamethrower, which he uses to heat up the toast and bacon.
30	* NerdsSpeakKlingon: While snooping around on Bob's computer, Ian finds some interesting files.
31	-->'''Ian''': Farren, do you realize what this is?\
32	'''Farren''': It's got you all worked up. Let me guess, a Klingon dictionary?\
33	'''Ian''': You have me confused with an entirely different class of geek.
34	* NeverTrustATrailer: There are numerous impressive stunts in the trailer and ads. They are indeed in the movie...during the opening credits, as a series of clips to establish Bob Ho's skills. Even more egregiously, the clips were not actually filmed for ''The Spy Next Door''; they were all taken from Jackie Chan's earlier films.
35	* TheNudifier: Family-friendly variant as the oil-eating bacteria only consumes the villainess' shoes.
36	* ParentalFashionVeto: Farren tries to go out in short skirts and crop tops, but Gillian and Bob make her go back and change.
37	* PetTheDog: Even though Farren has trouble getting along with Gillian and Ian, she is nice to Nora, hugging her after gymnastics practice.
38	* PokeThePoodle: The villainess literally takes candy from a kid.
39	* RecycledPremise: The substance-dissolving MacGuffin and the spy with a SecretIdentity and romance problems were all in ''Film/AgentCodyBanks''.
40	* RuleOfFunny: Though every Jackie Chan movie fight scene is under this category, there's also a scene in which Bob tosses a small kid no older than 5 up in the air extremely high, and she lands into her clothes. Of course, if you were to do this in real life, it would be considered child abuse with a 99.9% chance the child will die. Unless you're Jackie Chan doing it.
41	* RunningGag: The freshly-sprung main villain going through [[FashionVictimVillain one lousy outfit to replace his]] InstitutionalApparel after another. Although the SiegfriedAndRoy suit looked all right.
42	* SecretIdentity: Chan's character, Bob Ho, is a secret spy disguising himself as a pen importer.
43	* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Bob susses out a spy by saying something Russian.
44	* StockFootage: Again, with using scenes of Jackie Chan's older films ([[OlderThanTheyThink including a scene]] from ''Film/ArmorOfGod'') at the start to introduce him as a martial arts badass spy.
45	%%* StockScream: Wilhelm happens midway through.
46	* StuffedIntoATrashCan: Ian got stuffed into one by bullies, after the poor kid got wedgied.
47	* TwoWordsICantCount: When Bob meets Farren’s older teenage date, Larry (who is soon revealed to be a Russian operative, and whose beatdown by Bob leads to him revealing to the kids that he’s a spy), he tries to warn him not to get too close to her by pointing out she’s too young, counting a one-word number as two words:
48	-->'''Bob:''' “I have two words for you, Larry. Thirteen.”
49	* {{Wedgie}}: Ian gets a pretty big one from his bullies at school revealing his briefs to the entire student body in the hallway. Followed by his wedgie, he gets {{Stuffed into a Trash Can}}.
50	* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: A single mom leaves her three annoying children with her boyfriend, who they hate very much. What could go wrong!? Of course, HilarityEnsues.

Context Film / TheSpyNextDoor