Cast: Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Jim Broadbent, Cécile De France, Ewen Bremner, Karen Joy Morris
Director: Frank Coraci
Producers: Bill Badalato, Hal Lieberman
Screenplay: David Titcher and David Benullo & David Andrew Goldstein, based on the novel by Jules Verne
Cinematography: Phil Meheux
Music: Trevor Jones
U.S. Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Although my memory of reading Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days is admittedly a little foggy, I'm reasonably sure that it didn't include much in the way of Chinese martial arts. Those are motion picture embellishments. But what else could one reasonably expect when the sidekick gets top billing because he's played by one of the world's most accomplished and beloved action stars? Jules Verne, meet Jackie Chan.
This is the third major production to use the Verne novel as its inspiration, and, of the three, it is the least faithful to its source material. The 1956 movie, which starred David Niven and won a Best Picture Oscar (arguably one of the three worst citations ever in that category), was a lazy, overlong travelogue. The 1989 adaptation, featuring a pre-007 Pierce Brosnan in the lead role, was a made-for-TV mini-series that was spread out over two nights. For those who want faithfulness, that's the version to seek. Now we have this Disney-fied interpretation, which is too inconsistent to be worthwhile.
In this Around the World in 80 Days, Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan) is an inventor from the Absent Professor school, and his faithful valet, Passepartout (Jackie Chan) is a Chinaman who has recently robbed the Bank of England. Together, these two embark upon a trip around the world after Phileas unwisely bets his rival, Lord Kelvin (Jim Broadbent), that such a feat can be accomplished using modern means of transportation. ("Modern" being late-1800s.) If Phileas loses, he can never invent again. In France, the pair are joined by an obvious love interest for Phileas, Monique La Roche (Cécile De France), and their tracks are dogged by the incompetent Inspector Fix (Ewen Bremner, doing an imitation of Herbert Lom from the Pink Panther movies) and the dangerous General Fang (Karen Joy Morris). But there's really little to impede them as the travel from Paris to Turkey to India to China to San Francisco to New York to London.
The biggest problem with Around the World in 80 Days is the inconsistent entertainment value of the episodes. The one in France, which features a hot air balloon, is an exercise in slapstick action. The one in Turkey, with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a lecherous prince, is farcical. The one in China features a fair amount of ho-hum martial arts. San Francisco offers little, and New York is more fighting. Then there's a sequence on the Atlantic. In the end, the total is less than the sum of its parts. Although each episode might be marginally entertaining in its own right, the overall effect is that the movie isn't funny enough, exciting enough, or dramatic enough to warrant two hours of an audience member's time.
With Jackie Chan functioning as the star and action choreographer, one has the right to expect a fair amount of "kung fu." However, although there are about a half-dozen martial arts fights, none offers anything noteworthy. These are routine and uninspired sequences - not at all the kind of daring, over-the-top fare we have come to expect from Chan. (Yes, I realize that age has significantly curtailed his ability to do the kinds of bone-crunching maneuvers he has attempted in the past.) Hard as it may be to believe, Around the World in 80 Days offers only snooze-worthy action scenes.
Cameos abound. Schwarzenegger's brief, 5-minute appearance is getting a lot of attention, primarily because the big man pokes fun at his pre-Governor image. But seeing Schwarzenegger act like an ass and wear a really bad wig isn't worth the price of admission (although the scene is amusing in an offbeat kind of way). There are enough other famous faces to turn the movie into more of an exercise in finding the next star than in following the thin plot. (This is the downside to cameos - they distract and detract from the story.) France brings us Macy Gray. Sammo Hung helps out Jackie Chan in China. Rob Schneider is a hobo in San Francisco (this bit is mildly amusing). The Wilson Brothers (Owen and Luke) are unfunny as the Wright Brothers. Mark Addy plays a ship captain without nipples. And John Cleese gets to bark out one line. Cleese's presence brings to mind the physical similarity between leading man Steve Coogan and Monty Python member Eric Idle. Surely, the bit about wearing women's clothing can't be a coincidence? However, while I can see Coogan as Idle, Jackie Chan isn't as successful as Terry Jones.
Instead of focusing on breathtaking cinematography (as in the 1956 version), this Around the World in 80 Days sets up art direction as its hallmark. The various set pieces look good, and the computer animated transitions are cute. Buried under all of this visual glitz and star-power are the remnants of Jules Verne's tale. Control of the project rests in the hands of Frank Coraci, whose previous credits include two Adam Sandler "classics:" The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy. With Around the World in 80 Days, Coraci has shown some growth since those late-'90s films, but not enough to make this new take on an old story work.
© 2004 James Berardinelli