The Tuxedo Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)September 27th, 2002
The tuxedo
Catch it on HBO
Loath as I am to give a Jackie Chan movie such a low rating, please know I am doing it for your protection. You know the premise: Jimmy Tong (Jackie Chan) comes into possession of a super high tech tuxedo that gives him the trademark Jackie Chan skills, and more. Jackie is a master of fight choreography of course, but his early films were marked with a practically porn-level of plots, filler to justify the beautiful and funny fight scenes. Fair enough; they were dubbed or sub-titled as well. Recently he has shared the screen with some very funny costars, such as Owen Wilson and Chris Tucker, and we were all delighted to see the upgrade of between-fight material with no real degradation of fight quality.
This has not happened with this film. Oh sure, we could lay a quick blame on Jennifer Love Hewitt, his alarmingly skinny costar, but honestly, look at how they wrote her character. Jodie Foster could not have made this chick look intelligent or pleasant to be around, so I can only blame Jennifer for not complaining more about the material. Is it just because the sidekick is a girl? No - Supercop was great and possibly even greater with Michelle Yeoh costarring. Even the bad guys' evil plot is pretty clever, and a pretty decent little mystery for us to figure out.
The problem with the film is twofold: there's not enough Jackie action, seriously, and what exists feels almost like an afterthought; and the titular tux itself. Superman was not interesting until he was confronted with Kryptonite or General Zhod; battling street punks when you can reverse the orbit of the earth doesn't carry a lot of weight or tension. So it is with the tuxedo - basically, it can do anything, and do it perfectly. So, we know he's going to be all right and also kick some major booty. Hence, zero dramatic tension.
The best part is watching Jackie work with the tux - for that is what it looks like. He honestly looks like the garment is doing all the work and he is haplessly dragged along, which does make for some decent comedy. Jackie is a physical maestro and to see what appears to be his limbs working totally separate from his will is amazing body work. It is not enough, however, to hold the film. Between the lack of tension lost by the magic Armani and Hewitt's horrible character, the movie has nowhere to go.
And fight scenes? Sort of, in the background, they occur, but they have as much impact as a billboard whooshing by - and after all, this is Jackie Chan! We don't expect Jennifer to swing from chandeliers and slide down buildings, although she does do a good job with the choreography she has. But Jackie is simply not given enough opportunity to strut his stuff; when he does, we are watching the suit do it. I am very sorry not to recommend it.
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These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but just credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks.
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