10:48am Friday 19th March 2010
By Damon Smith
HONG Kong legend Jackie Chan may be comfortably in his 50s, but he still manages to put many of the action genre’s young pretenders to shame with his acrobatics in The Spy Next Door.
Targeted at families, Brian Levant’s hi-tech comedy marries the martial arts prowess of the leading man with slapstick and cartoon violence.
It is the sort of hare-brained caper that elicits squeals of laughter from young audiences as Chan wields two frying pans, one in each hand, and proceeds to batter a pantomime henchman into unconsciousness.
When he’s not saving the world from catastrophe, Chan’s diminutive hero gleefully bungles his colloquialisms – “You are chopping my bust!” – yet still manages to find the words (presumably from the inside of a greetings card) to instruct one deeply unhappy teenager in matters of the heart.
“Family isn’t whose blood you carry, it’s who you love and who loves you,” he coos with a wistful look in his eye that almost compels us to take him seriously.
Thankfully, a sartorially challenged lead villain –“I look like the Fresh Prince of Belarus!” – and breathlessly choreographed fight sequences ensure Levant’s film is divorced from reality.
See it at the Empire and ABC
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