OK, so I got to see The Spy Next Door this weekend with my now seven year old boy.  It was a fun movie in a cute childish way.  Definitely made for kids.  This is standard Jackie Chan kid stuff here.  It was fun, definitely a thumbs up, but still kid stuff.  Except for one odd thing: the plot centers around a bootleg of David Bowie and Iggy Pop performing together.  Now, that’s cool and all, but I don’t get why it’s in this movie.  Now, the person this performance means something to is a ten year old boy.  He was born in 1999.  Bowie hasn’t really done a lot since 1999.  He’s done a lot of cool things, but musically, not so much.  Now, granted, retro and alternative radio plays a lot of Bowie, but not a whole lot of ten year old boys sit around listening to those stations.  So, bottom line, they may have heard Bowie, but I sure don’t see how a ten year old boy would be a fan.  They hear a lot about Elvis too.  I’ll put it this way, think back to when you were ten.  How many of your idols then were over the age of 20?

Secondly, and probably less profound, the only Bowie/Pop bootlegs I’m aware of were the 1977 The Idiot tour.  And, that’s all over the internet.  It’s just striking me as weird with all the Bowie themed small kid movies coming out.

And lastly, and certainly least profound, Jackie Chan is 55.  According to him he saw the Bowie/Pop performance that we have to assume was 1977 or so.  According to the movie, Bob Ho was living in China.  Bowie and Pop never performed in China.

Just a note to the future movie makers, we all know Bowie’s the coolest thing to ever hit pop music.  That’s a given, and that’s documented by his work.  However, to make a movie the least bit believable, keep Bowie in perspective.  If it’s a movie about 30 to 50 somethings, Bowie’s fine.  If it’s a movie about little kids,  Bowie’s not.  It’s a distraction that doesn’t need to be there.  Scour the latest teen magazines and you’ll find plenty of fillers for the movie.  And, quite frankly, I think most 40 somethings don’t really appreciate the fact some people think their music is on the same level as something a ten year old would listen to.  Music’s just not what it was thirty years ago.