The film stars Jackie Chan, with a supporting cast of Amber Valletta, Magnús Scheving, Madeline Carroll, Will Shadley, Alina Foley, Billy Ray Cyrus, and George Lopez.

Bob Ho is an operative of the CIA as an undercover agent on loan from the Chinese Intelligence, who decides to retire after putting Russian terrorist Anton Poldark behind bars and marry his girlfriend Gillian, who has three kids from previous relationships: Farren (a step-daughter), Ian, and Nora.

Bob tells her that family is more than just sharing blood ties with someone, revealing that he never knew his birth parents and was raised in a group home.

Fearing for her children's safety, Gillian flies home to take them back and angrily breaks up with Bob.

Bob heads to an abandoned factory to confront the Russian terrorists but finds that Ian, wanting to become a spy, followed him and Farren has run away from home to try to help.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Lacking a script funny enough to cover up for Jackie Chan's fading physical gifts, The Spy Next Door fails on every conceivable level.

"[9] Daniel Eagan of The Hollywood Reporter also disliked the film saying most of the film is "pretty tired stuff from Pacifier-style slapstick to comic relief delivered by, of all people, erstwhile country star Billy Ray Cyrus" and that Chan "seems stiff" and "clad in unattractive clothes and forced into dumbed-down situations.

He added "The woeful screenplay, the mundane direction, by Brian Levant, and the indifferent acting all combine to sink a stupid plot which should never have got off the ground.

[12] Rickey, giving the film the benefit of the doubt, wrote "The plot may be forgettable, but the execution is frantic and funny.