DVD Around the World in 80 Days (Full Screen Edition)

Quite appropriately, Jackie Chan gets top billing in this movie, as this really is a Jackie Chan movie. Unfortunately, it has other stuff too. One doesn't watch Jackie Chan's movies for the writing or the acting or the special effects; one watches for the action. In the Jackie Chan portions of this film, the action is enough to entertain. At the other times, however, the bad acting, writing and effects are more than a little annoying.

No one comes off looking well in this movie. I wasn't demanding Oscar-caliber performances, just something that wasn't overly hammy. The dialogue, even if delivered well, is often weak and the special effects are unimpressive. Perhaps a good start would have been casting Rick Moranis as Fogg, since Moranis played essentially the same goofy inventor character in his "Honey, I Shrunk..." movies.

So there is some fun action and perhaps the under-10 crowd won't be put off by the flaws in this movie, but for anyone else, catching Shrek or Harry Potter (in the theaters at the same time) even a second time, is better than catching this one once. This is one for Jackie Chan fans only.

Professor Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan) is an inventor in the late 1800's England, with lots of ideas and dreams. He is somewhat scorned, however, by his "fellow" scientists at the London Royal Academy of Science. He also has trouble securing good assistants since he somehow manages to shock, scorch, or otherwise injure them. Enter Passapartout (Jackie Chan), a Chinese bank robber in the guise of a Frenchman in order to escape the police. He jumps at the chance to serve Mr. Fogg, and is even more eager when Fogg accepts the wager from the head of the Academy of Sciences, Lord Kelvin, who dares Fogg that he cannot circumvent the globe in the allotted time. Passapartout knows this path will take him back to his native village in China, but conceals this from Fogg. Fogg and Passapartout (hint: it's pronounced Passpartou) depart on their mission. They counter numerous civilizations, manage to dodge the Black Scorpion (a group determined to recover a jade Buddha, the object that Passapartout robbed the bank for to begin with) and pick up a third companion, Monique LaRouge (Cecile de France).

GOOD: Fogg is devoted to the betterment of mankind through his inventions, even though he is ridiculed by his peers. He doesn't accept the bet because of the large sum of money but because he would win Lord Kelvin's position as head of the Royal Academy, which would give him more freedom for bettering humanity. Passapartout robbed the bank, but only to recover the jade Buddha, which he believes protects his village. He displays loyalty to Fogg, although leaving him deceived as long as he can. He also dives through a window (nearly losing his chance for escape in the process) to save a sleeping mother and child from a fire. Monique helps inspire Fogg to look beyond facts and figures to realize dreams, goals, and aspirations. Overall, the characters display generally positive character attributes of devotion, friendship, and love.

BAD: I don't count this as bad myself, but there is a good deal of stylized, non-bloody battles, the kind I understand Jackie Chan is famous for. In the general tradition of Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote, everyone gets beat up a little, but few are seriously harmed in the end. Knives are thrown by assassins, quills are thrown by an angry Lord Kelvin (both of which stick in peoples' skin), and punches and kicks are exchanged between Passapartout, sword-wielding Black Scorpion members, and other karate fighters. There are a few rather unnecessary swear words (H- and D-words), and some drinking. Arnold Schwartzenigger, perhaps in nod to his womanizing nature, requests humorously that Monique stays with him to be his seventh wife. Fogg stares once at part of Monique's exposed legs (1800's standard modesty, it's just above her ankles) and becomes flustered when she catches him staring. There's also the Buddha statue which Passapartout (or Lau Xing, as he is know to his people) steals to return to his village because he and his people believe it will protect their village. Upon returning it, all the villagers, and even Monique, bow reverently before the statue. I list these attributes under "bad" for any concerned parents. I didn't find any of them to be exceedingly objectionable to the point that children should not see it.

THOUGHTS: The key word when referring to Jules Verne here is "loosely" based. An inventor, and his assistant set out to prove man can travel the world in eighty days are the only points where the two stories agree. As for the movie itself, well ... I believe the preview (I based most of my expectations, which I admit were quite high, on the preview) promised a little more than the movie delivered. While most previews pick just a sampling of movie moments, I think the preview chose MOST of the good moments in Around the World in 80 Days, which left you with few surprises in the end. And in fact, there were few surprises in the movie at all, whether you've read the book or not. There were quite a few laughs to be had, but very little character development. Once the movie begins, it continues on a slam-bang course that doesn't slow down or give any pause for meaningful character interaction until about 45 minutes into the movie. I felt like I was seeing an extended trailer, not the real movie. The graphics were...pretty good. For country-to-country transitions, it was obvious the graphics were supposed to come off as fanciful, but still came off rather poorly.

Overall, while not quite living up to my expectations (and to be fair, perhaps such epic thrillers as Lord of the Rings have set an impossibly high standard), the movie is still enjoyable, and I'd recommend it for all ages. I hope we can expect better from Walden Media in the upcoming Chronicles of Narnia series.