The Tuxedo

Jackie Chan's latest flick hits the DVD scene. With Jennifer Love Hewitt co-starring, we decide if it's any good.

Looking back at Jackie Chan's career, I'm amazed that he wasn't discovered by Hollywood sooner. That just goes to show that it was looking in all the wrong places (Van Damme comes to mind). Now, most people can't even think of Jackie Chan without seeing Owen Wilson or Chris Tucker standing beside him providing us with some comic relief.

Because of this, I was anxious to see The Tuxedo, Chan's first big Hollywood movie minus a comedic sidekick. But, upon seeing that the movie opens with a close-up of an animal urinating in a stream, I knew I was in for a bumpy ride.

Chan plays Jimmy Tong, a run-of-the-mill cab driver with no martial arts training (Yes, you read right. This is Jackie Chan's character!). After an impressive display of driving, Tong is offered a job to be the personal driver to super spy Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs). When Devlin is put in the hospital after an assassination attempt, Tong puts on the spy's tuxedo, which we then learn is a government weapon capable of allowing the wearer to perform millions of actions from martial arts to the mambo.

When Tong receives a call from the CSA, he decides to masquerade himself as Clark Devlin and team up with the rookie agent Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewett). Together they attempt to thwart the evil plans of Diedrich Banning (Ritchie Coster), an evil bottled water tycoon determined to monopolize the water industry by poisoning the country's reservoirs.

This movie is full of problems from beginning to end. Just when we get used to being pulled in one direction, the movie makes a complete 180. For instance, we're led to believe that the tuxedo is unknown to everyone but Devlin and Tong. Hewett's character, Del Blaine, seems clueless about its existence. She asks more than once, "How does he do that?" She even teases him about wearing a tuxedo everywhere they go.

Then in the last third of the movie, Del Blaine discovers Tong's true identity and demands that he take off the tuxedo because it doesn't belong to him. She knew? Why the disbelief in his abilities? Why the question of wardrobe?

Also, anyone who drinks Diedrich Banning's poisoned water dies of massive dehydration within one minute. How is the villain supposed to monopolize the water industry if he kills the consumer?

Problems aside, Jackie Chan is as charming as ever. The martial arts, while present, take a back seat to the comedy. Chan shows here that he is capable of being funny without Tucker or Wilson. However, his character isn't without its flaws. Are we really supposed to believe that Jackie Chan doesn't know how to fight? He tells us that "Not everyone Chinese is Bruce Lee", which is true. He's not Bruce Lee; he's Jackie Chan and he can kick just as much butt. The filmmakers needed to spend more time forcing Chan's character into our brains because he just isn't believable.

At least we can identify what Chan's character is, which is more than can be said for Hewett's Del Blaine. She goes from being a rookie CSA agent constantly thinking back to the manual for what to do in one scene to a sure of herself pro in the next. Then, ten minutes later, she's back to a rookie again. Who are you lady? I don't think it's fair to evaluate Hewett's acting here. If we don't know who this character is then how was she expected to?

First time director Kevin Donovan brings little to the table here. His use of strange angles and very quick cuts only helps to disorient the viewer even more. I suppose it's not bad for a first try, but I'm surprised he was given the opportunity on a big budget film like this.

How do you make a bad film worse? You put together an inferior DVD. First, we're treated to a selection of 9 deleted scenes, 3 extended scenes, and a montage of bloopers and outtakes. Upon viewing the deleted and extended scenes, it becomes blatantly obvious why they were cut. In fact, they're not worth viewing even on their own. The bloopers reel, which is different than the one shown during the credits, is equally atrocious. 95% of the bloopers are outtakes of Jennifer Love Hewett laughing during takes. She may have been laughing, but I wasn't.

Next up we have the HBO First Look: Tailor Made For Jackie Chan. This featurette, which consists of short interviews with the cast and director and some behind the scenes footage, is nothing more than a 13 minute commercial for the film.

Rounding out the disc are the theatrical trailer, filmographies, and production notes, which are just the written form of the HBO First Look. In fact, the short interviews in the featurette are quoted in the production notes! Is there nothing else to be said about this movie (Perhaps there truly isn't?)? We're not even treated to an audio commentary with this one. Maybe the director and cast were just as dissatisfied? Overall, this is a very disappointing DVD of a substandard movie.

Ryan "Rip" Berg
DVD Reviewer, Kikizo Movies