Around the World in 80 Days English Movie

Feature Film | 2004
Critics:
Jul 7, 2004 By Subhash K.Jha


If Gurinder Chadha can do a Jane Austen why can't Jackie Chan do a Jules Verne? The older he gets the goofier he seems to get.


In his latest fast-paced, slick revved-up Vernes -- or jacked-up Jules if you prefer -- Jackie Chan plays valet to inventor Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan).


A madcap, wonky and flurried lieutenant and loyal friend, the part of Passepartout allows Chan to hang suspended in midair without his trousers, get into a scented bath-tub of a Turkish king played by - surprise, surprise --Arnold Schwarzenegger. But not to worry, the perky Cecille de France is also around.


In another of the many helter-skelter sequences in this handsome and lavish project, Chan breaks off a limb of a bust depicting Schwarzenegger as Rodin's Thinker (gifted to him with the card 'With Love, Rodin').


In fact, Schwarzenegger's cameo signals one of the funniest sections in the film. As a spoilt Turkish king named Hapi(!!) Arnie gets as goofy as the film's mood requires him to be.


In the end, after the unlikely trio of inventor, valet and impish hanger-on win the wager of whirling around the world in 80 days, Coogan (an enormously watchable actor, and if you've seen him many years ago do another literary adaptation "Indian In The Cupboard", you'd know what I mean) is overwhelmed by emotion. He grabs Queen Victoria (Kathy Bates, in another one of the many delightful cameos of this feisty feel-good feast) and embraces her.


A gasp goes up in the crowd, and then, the stern lady smiles oh-so-slightly acknowledging the zany no-holds-barred mood of the baggy but engaging adaptation.


The charm of "Around The World In 80 Days" lies not so much in its literary antecedents as its ability to extend the book's message into a contemporary format. Director Frank Coraci plays to the lowest galleries without toppling into the abyss of excessive cuteness.


Though the film goes on a frenzied travelling binge it doesn't go overboard with the sights and sounds. The trio of voyagers are given room to develop a relationship. And though this is ostensibly a Jackie Chan vehicle, his two co-stars Steve Coogan and Cecille de France seem to have more to do in terms of sheer screen presence and verbal acrobatics.


While Coogan and de France get into saris in "India" (actually a bustling railway station set depicting Agra) Chan is content playing his screen-master's shadow. For those who expect him to indulge in his trademark martial arts, there's heartening news: he gets to fight with a female warlord before the end.


The fight, like much else in this oddball comedy of companionable dimensions, is staged more in the spirit of jest than anger.


While director Frank Coraci passes muster as a purveyor of global pursuits, he gets better marks in taking potshots at the British aristocracy. The machinations in the science club are hilarious. Jim Broadbent is outrageously over-the-top as an arrogant lord. His sneering public contempt for the queen followed by a gasp and complete silence in the mob has Broadbent wondering, "She's standing behind me, isn't she?"


Yup, she sure is! You could choose to get deeply offended by what Coraci has done to Jules Vernes's classic. On the other hand you could share the mood of delightful iconoclasm that simply rolls out of the fabulously fetching frames as Chan and his co-stars travel from England to Turkey to the US.


The breathless pace allows the actors room and space to get goofy with grace. To me, that's what makes this zany journey appealing and wholesome.

Subhash K.Jha

   

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