I
usually enjoy Jackie Chan's movies, but this one belongs in the
clunker pile along with "Shanghai Noon" and "The
Legend of Drunken Master." This is no "Twin
Dragons" or "Mr. Nice Guy." This movie
fails as both an action movie and a comedy.
Chan is James
Tong, a wimpy cab driver whose only positive attribute is...he's
a great driver. He can't fight, he can't talk to women,
all he can do is drive. A passenger (Debi Mazar) hops into
his cab one day and offers him a job for much, much more than
his regular salary. The job is to chauffeur secret agent
Devlin (Jason Isaacs). He's smooth, he's slick, he's
everything Jimmy hopes to be. Little does he know, the
secret to his success is his magic tuxedo, which can perform any
function he pleases.
After
trying to escape a car bombing, Devlin becomes heavily injured
and asks Jimmy to wear his tuxedo. Well, Jimmy does
exactly that, and ends up being mistaken for Devlin.
Devlin's mission to track down an evil water tycoon, who's
composing a toxic bottled water that can dehydrate people in
seconds. Jimmy's assigned a partner--a new
female agent (Jennifer Love Hewitt), who's highly stuck-up and
totally by-the-book.
One of
the main problems with this flick is Jackie's handed a bunch of
comic one-liners, which he mangles in his broken English.
Verbal comedy must be delivered quickly. Jackie's
specialty is physical comedy. Unfortunately, he doesn't
get to do much of that in this movie. Most of the good
physical comedy (Jackie doing a series of back flips and boogying
down) was given away in the trailers. So this another case
of "You've seen the trailers; You've seen it all."
Well, at
least Jackie has an excuse for his bad comic timing and delivery--his
English isn't too good. Jennifer Love Hewitt's timing
and delivery is just as bad. She's convincing in a
dramatic lead, romantic lead or a helpless victim who has
to flee a hook-wielding psychopath (the "I Know What
You Did Last Summer" movies), but she cannot do comedy!
Lucille Ball she is not. Watching the outtakes, it seems
like Jennifer and Jackie got along well on the set, but they
have no on-screen chemistry. So if you're expecting the
same chemistry Jackie and Chris Tucker had in the "Rush
Hour" movies, think again. Jennifer's only positive
attributes in "The Tuxedo" were flashing her ample
cleavage and pretty smile.
The
story is cut-and-dry, and aside from the initial premise, there
is no trace of originality. Virtually all the gags are
lame and predictable, aside from the ones shown in the trailers.
There are a few cool action sequences, but the film lacks
the nonstop action of Jackie's Hong Kong flicks. Jackie's
films are not known for their rich storylines, but usually
the beautifully choreographed combination of action and comedy
makes up for all that. There are no memorable action
scenes in "The Tuxedo."
Whether
or not you're a Jackie Chan fan, you'll probably be disappointed
by this movie. As I said, the trailers have shown it all.
I'm sure many will complain that I took this movie too
seriously. I didn't take Jackie's other films (aside from
the clunkers I mentioned earlier) seriously. Maybe it was
because...hmmm...I was laughing and...hmmm....I was having fun!
