* 1/2 out of ****
When it comes to pure charisma, the only Hong Kong actor who matches with Jackie Chan is Chow Yun-Fat (who is, overall, probably a better actor). What is it about Chan that appeals to so many people? It's not only that he does all his stunts for real, but he seems like a natural, care-free, fun-loving kind of guy. In every film he's been in, you can't help but notice his enthusiasm, even when he's starring in crap.
And thus we segue to The Tuxedo, a sort-of spy spoof which Chan stars as Jimmy Tong, a reckless taxi driver with a crush on a woman working in an art exhibition. Because of his top-notch driving skills, he's hired as Clark Devlin's (Jason Isaacs) personal driver. Devlin is one suave fellow, with a fine tuxedo to boot, but he falls into a coma after an incident involving an explosive.
Tong, as his good friend and employee, feels obligated to find out what happened to his boss so he dresses himself in Devlin's tuxedo, which apparently enables the wearer superhuman ability and agility. Posing as Devlin, Tong partners with a secret agent named Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt) to expose a crime to poison the world's water supply.
For a good twenty or so minutes, the film is actually pretty enjoyable fluff, with a cool car "chase," which is really just Chan driving real fast, but fun to watch, nonetheless. However, once Hewitt is introduced as Chan's partner, the whole thing goes downhill with mindless blather about water. It seems the villain intends to poison the world's water supply so that only his bottled water is safe.
Utter stupidity of the plan aside (poison water, ecosystem...dead, anyone?), it's just not the kind of set-up we want for a Chan flick. This isn't the first film he's posed as a secret agent (see the far superior First Strike or Who am I?) but this time around, it ultimately drags the picture down. For one thing, the film's most interesting character isn't Chan, it's Isaacs' Clark Devlin, who really is a cool and suave individual (Isaac himself has always been a very underrated actor).
Chan is his enthusiastic self as usual, but when it comes to performing nifty stunts, forget it, the stuff here looks too manipulated, which entirely defeats the charm of watching Jackie Chan take on countless opponents. The humor isn't very good, either, with relentlessly predictable jokes ("nice rack") and an astonishingly digressive segment involving Chan performing like James Brown, which is cringe-worthy, to say the least.
Last, and possibly least, there's Jennifer Love Hewitt, who's a fairly pretty actress and as far as genuine talent goes...well, I've seen much worse (Denise Richards, I'm looking at you). But here, she's just annoying, called on by the script to do nothing but whine and complain. Worse yet, the movie never even opts to give us a good cleavage shot, which might have made the more annoying bits bearable.
As far as story goes, the plot is lame, the villains make zero impression, and the gadgets...well, the tuxedo IS the gadget and it's not a very impressive one, at that. For superior martial arts entertainment, check out First Strike or Who am I?
