NEW YORK: Jackie Chan Targets Kids With low-budget Spy, It’s been over 30 years since Jackie Chan supplanted Bruce Lee as film’s reigning martial-arts superstar.

Now in his 50s, Chan tries to broaden his audience with the kid-oriented “The Spy Next Door,” appealing directly to the “Kung Fu Panda” crowd with mixed results. Directed by Brian Levant of “Are We There Yet?” fame, “Spy” is entertaining in spots but too obviously low-budget. The film faces so-so returns upon its Friday release through Lionsgate.

The opening features clips from some of Chan’s recent films before speeding briskly through a nicely-staged fight pitting the star, playing CIA agent Bob Ho, against villain Poldark (Magnus Scheving). Ho’s athleticism and James Bond-like gadgets play perfectly to Chan’s strengths and fans should enjoy seeing how the star has adapted old routines for new purposes.

But the plot soon shifts to Ho’s retirement to a suburb in the Southwest, where he dons Clark Kent spectacles in his guise as a “pen importer.” Ho pines for next-door single mom Gillian (Amber Valletta), but she worries that her kids won’t accept him. Older siblings Farren (Madeline Carroll) and Ian (Will Shadley) sneer at Ho, while the younger Nora (Alina Foley) is the first to suspect that he may be more than what he seems.

Ho offers to babysit when Gillian is called away, only to learn that Poldark has escaped from custody and is once again a threat to the nation’s security. What’s worse, Ian inadvertently downloads a deadly computer program, putting the kids and Ho in peril. Struggling to protect the children and capture Poldark, Ho is forced to reveal his background as a secret agent and to call upon the kids to help defeat his enemies.

Most of “The Spy Next Door” is pretty tired stuff from “Pacifier”-style slapstick to comic relief delivered by, of all people, erstwhile country star Billy Ray Cyrus. Scheving and his cohort Katherine Boecher display the proper spirit, but everyone else, Chan included, seems stiff and listless.

The star has worked with kids before, in the Hong Kong production “Rob-B-Hood” for example, and will soon be seen in a remake of “The Karate Kid.” For much of this film though, he is clad in unattractive clothes and forced into dumbed-down situations. It’s also hard to understand his English at times, a crucial drawback in a PG comedy.

Chan can be an extremely appealing performer. When his old magic breaks through he can still thrill viewers. In the best such instance, Chan does a sensational bit with some chairs while helping demolish a Chinese restaurant during one battle, something that will delight kids as much as their parents.

MUMBAI: Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra is now set to play Malayalam superstar Mohanlal’s wife in Vishal Bharadwaj’s next movie Seven Husbands.

“Mohanlal will be playing one of Priyanka’s husbands in Seven Husbands. The names of other actors are being kept under wraps as of now,” a source close to the actress told media.

This will be for the second time that Priyanka will play multiple characters in a single film. She had essayed 12 roles in Ashutosh Gowariker’s What’s Your Rashee?, but the film failed to pull in audiences.

Seven Husbands” is Bharadwaj’s next venture after his acclaimed movie Kaminey, which also starred Priyanka. The movie is said to be co-written by Bharadwaj and author Ruskin Bond.

GAZA: Israeli planes carried out air strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, injuring seven Palestinians, Palestinian medical workers said.

An army spokesman said the strikes, which occurred after a rocket fired from the Hamas-run enclave landed in Israel, had targeted two factories in the central and northern Gaza used to make weapons and a smuggling tunnel under the border with Egypt.

Palestinian witnesses and medical workers said the targets included a metal foundry in the central Gaza Strip, a caravan in the north and smuggling tunnels in the south.

The attacks occurred one day after Hamas said it had reached an agreement with smaller armed groups in the territory to halt sporadic rocket fire towards Israel, which often responds with air strikes.

The army spokesman said the air strikes were in response to a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday. It landed near the city of Sderot, causing no injuries or damage, he said.

Calm along the Israel-Gaza frontier has been largely maintained since Israel ended a 22-day war against Hamas in the territory in January with the aim of halting daily rocket fire.

The Israeli military usually responds to sporadic rocket attacks by launching air strikes against tunnels under the Egyptian border used to smuggle goods and weapons into Gaza.

Egypt has been trying to mediate a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas that would include the release of a captured Israeli soldier held in Gaza since 2006 in return for hundreds of Palestinians jailed in Israel.