The Tuxedo
October 21, 2002

     The safety of the world is at hand when a plot to contaminate the world’s water system with a deadly virus.  It’s up to spy Clark Devlin (played by Jason Isaacs) to save the world, but disaster befalls him as he met an attempt of assassination.  Now only his driver Jimmy Tong (Jackie Chan) can save the world from water.  Donned with the legendary Tuxedo, Jimmy is equipped with special abilities, now capable of assimilating the baddies.  Along with side-kick Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt), the world feels a lot safer…

     There’s one thing I’ve got to say about this movie… and I will take a deep breath and shout out… THIS IS ONE OF THE WORST JACKIE CHAN MOVIES EVER!  Whew, finally got that out.  This was even worse than those good ol’ dubbed Hong Kong ones.  Why? You may ask.  Well simply because it doesn’t fully take advantage of Jackie’s talents.  He’s best known for his martial arts, one of the factors that meld so well with his comedy.  But this movie, ‘spiffs’ it up a bit with special effects and such, making it seem more mechanical and unbelievable, which was really not at all necessary.  With that said, it really did not matter whether it was Jackie Chan or Robin Williams playing the role, but the name ‘Jackie Chan’, is the only reason why people keep coming to see it.

     The story of using the world’s water source to dehydrate people, enabling them to become thirsty and crave for more, and the company will gain billions of dough from it, is basically ingenious.  Yet it is lacking the depth, but who would care, considering it is a comedy.  The whole story suits the movie just fine. 

     Now I must comment on the comedy.  As you all should know, there is a fine line between comedy and stupidity, and The Tuxedo just crosses over to the stupidity side.  Sure it’s good for a few little laughs, but a stupid joke is put in here and there.  But it hardly gave me any laughs, just a ‘whatever’ face, though a few would disagree, but this is my opinion. 

     Doesn’t anybody think 007 parodies are a tad bit clichéd?  Yes proof of this lies in Clark Devlin’s James Bond-like accent, the occasional put in of ‘the name’s Tong, James Tong’ and finally you can hear traces of the James Bond theme song.

     In a concluding statement, The Tuxedo is a movie for you if you enjoy comedy.  Not exactly if you’re a Jackie Chan fan, but a comedy fan.  But still this movie lacks good comedy.  I’d suggest renting it, or if you are cheap, tell your friend it’s the greatest movie ever and borrow it off him/her.  And one more thing, ‘the name’s Wong, Bo Wong’… that really sounds… dreadful…

     I'm not even going to waste space on screen shots...

 - Bobo