On Saturday, my family (along with several other Mom in the City members and their families) attended an advance screening of The Spy Next Door. We had a fun time.

Once we arrived at the theater, we took a picture of the kids before the movie started.

To my (pleasant) surprise, everyone in the family enjoyed the movie. I thought that my husband Reggie and oldest son Michael would really enjoy it. I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did. Most of all, I could barely believe that the movie caught Sean’s attention for the entire time. That was a first. Usually, he is squirming and ready to go at least by the last half hour of the movie.

The movie stars Jackie Chan as Bob Ho, an undercover CIA spy who is really great at his job. He is in love with his next door neighbor Gillian, so he decides to change careers after one last mission. There are the requisite snags (of course). Ho needs to endear himself to Gillian’s three kids before she will even consider taking their relationship to the next level. There is the cute little girl, the “geeky” boy who wants to be cool and the difficult super-mini wearing tween/teen with an attitude for days. Then, there is the plot twist where Ho ends up doing another mission…while babysitting Gillian’s kids.

What the script lacks in originality, it makes up for in the numerous action sequences…especially the fighting ones. You could literally hear the audience go “ooh” and “aah” as the bad guys were getting whipped all over the screen (by kids and adults alike!). I would surprised if this film won any future Oscar nominations. It is not like the acting is extra great or anything like that. However, I don’t think that was the producers’ goal. Rather, I think that they were aiming for a family-friendly film that the entire family could watch together and enjoy. Mission accomplished! My boys have been saying “Hi-Ya” and doing fight moves every since they saw the movie. Honestly, they were doing that before. It’s just that now they say, “I’m Jackie Chan” as they do so.

Sean fell asleep on the subway ride home after the movie

A special thanks goes to Peter K. of Terry Hines & Associates for providing the 25+ Mom in the City families (including mines!) passes for the screening.

On a side note, I sat by Junnie one of my long-time Mom in the City reader/friends. She is an amazing woman and supportive friend. Recently, her family visited her homeland. She is so kind that she brought me the following gift back from Hong Kong with her…

The gift and packaging are beautiful, right? I told you…Mom in the City readers are the BEST! (Thanks for proving me right once again Junnie!)

1/4 Update: The newsletter subscribers who responded in time have been notified.

Here is a special treat for Mom in the City readers in the NYC area. The first 20 newsletter subscribers who share the name of their favorite family film in the “Comments” section below will receive a family pack (4 tickets per pack) to view an advance screening of The Spy Next Door. The screening will be on January 9, 2010 at 10:00AM in Manhattan.

I haven’t seen the movie yet, so here is the company’s synopsis:
The family action comedy THE SPY NEXT DOOR stars Jackie Chan as Bob Ho, an undercover CIA superspy who decides to give up his career in espionage to settle down with his next-door neighbor and girlfriend, Gillian (Amber Valletta). But Bob has one more mission to complete before Gillian agrees to marry him: winning over her three opinionated kids. When Gillian suddenly has to leave town, Bob volunteers to babysit the children so he can earn their approval. But when one of the kids mistakenly downloads a top-secret formula from his computer, Bobs archenemy, a Russian terrorist, moves in for the attack, forcing Bob to juggle the roles of spy and prospective stepfather in the most challenging mission of his career!

You can see the film’s trailer and read more about the show at http://www.thespynextdoorfilm.com/. The movie will be released to the general public on Friday, January 15, 2010. FYI: THIS FILM IS RATED PG FOR SEQUENCES OF ACTION VIOLENCE AND SOME MILD RUDE HUMOR. (My husband thinks that it will be alright for the kids to see, so we’re going to give it a try.)

Thanks to thaweb.com for providing the movie tickets.