The Tuxedo (2002)

Let's be realistic.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I left the TV on accidentally and this movie was playing when I woke in the morning. I wanted to get out of bed to make a cup of coffee but couldn't. I was glued to the TV watching Jackie Chan. I had never heard of this one and could not figure out the title just by watching as I thought I knew all of Jackie Chan movies. And when I saw Jackie kill James Brown I was even more confused. I logged into IMDb and it took awhile to track it down but I found it after 20 minutes or so. Anyway, great movie, despite not seeing the beginning or the end I shall have to rent it or something to see what I missed, that my friends is why I rate it 7, probably be a 10 once I see the complete movie.

Jimmy Tong (Jackie Chan) is a taxi driver who can't seem to ask his dreamgirl out. Steena (Debi Mazar) comes in and hires the fast driver to be the chauffeur for super wealthy Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs). They become friendly but Jimmy doesn't know that Devlin is a superspy. A bombing puts Devlin in the hospital. Jimmy goes back to the mansion and puts on the tuxedo which turns out to be a high tech gear with extraordinary powers. Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is support at CSA headquarters who mistakenly assumes that Jimmy is Devlin as Jimmy goes on assignment against the villain Dietrich Banning (Ritchie Coaster) and his plan to take over the water supply.Jackie Chan is not a good comedian in English. Some people make that mistake from his work in the Rush Hour movies. Essentially, he is the straight man in those movies. He still has difficulties doing non-physical comedic work in English. This just puts all that up front. The location work isn't the best trying to make the Toronto NYC transition. The story makes very limited logical sense. There was a chance that this movie could go full camp when Jackie Chan starts doing James Brown. However this is more sad than funny.

Martial arts star Jackie Chan plays chauffeur Jimmy Tong, who has been employed by millionaire Clark Devlin to be his driver. After an accident that put Devlin in the hospital, Tong was supposed to fetch some things for him and unknowingly tries on Devlin's tuxedo, which turns out to be a suit that dons special powers. This discovery leads Tong into an espionage case involving Dietrich Banning (Ritchie Coaster), who was responsible for Devlin's accident, and involving the intervention of an American spy agency, who assigns scientist Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt) to the case.I've seen this movie a number of times and most likely enjoy it for its quick-action, quick-humor and for the fact that Chan and Hewitt are in it - all despite the film having overly slapstick humor, corny acting, lack of suspense, and lack of rapport between Chan and Hewitt's characters (since they're supposed to be a team). Chan clearly didn't take his role too seriously, but was just having fun with his character, showing off a dozen martial arts moves.It's not an action masterpiece, but a popcorn-fun film with a touch of thrills and sci-fi.Grade B-

I personally think The Medallion is worse than the Tuxedo, but the thing is The Tuxedo I was left cold by. Jackie Chan is always watchable, and he is one of the best things of this mediocre effort having a lot of charisma and doing what he can do. Jason Issacs also gives a strong performance, the first twenty minutes are actually great, the Macguffin is fun and the film does look good and doesn't look as though it was edited on a bacon slicer.However, despite these good things, The Tuxedo does fall downhill quickly. The storytelling on the whole is incredibly clunky complete with cardboard cut-outs for characters, poor dialogue, stunts that suffer from a lack of energy and unnecessary(not to mention sloppy) CGI effects that miss the point of everything Chan stands for. The film is badly paced, with a lot of rushed and slow spots that dispand from any more believability the film could have had, and the direction is bland. While Chan and Issacs are good, Jennifer Love-Hewitt is terrible. She in general is not a great actress but she is one with warmth and endearment, but with such a poorly written and undercooked role she tries way too hard.Overall, not Chan's worst, but rather weak. 4/10 Bethany Cox