The Tuxedo (PG-13, 2002)

THE TUXEDO stars Jackie Chan as Jimmy Tong, a guy who knows nothing about kick-boxing but drives very, very fast. He ends up as a chauffeur for a James Bond-style spy named Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs). When the spy is injured, Jimmy puts on Devlin's tuxedo, a high-tech wonder that gives its wearer the power to defy gravity, sing and dance to soul music, and, oh yes, fight. Devlin's new partner is Del (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a newbie out to prove herself. She thinks Jimmy is Devlin, so the two of them go off to save the world from a deranged wacko who wants to control the world's drinkable water supply.

The bad guy in this movie may be evil, but he doesn't do nearly as much damage to Jackie Chan as the script does. It's a cute idea, miserably executed. Too much time is spent on everything except what Chan is really good at, and when we finally get down to the fight scenes, they are nowhere near his usual standard, except for one brief moment when, wearing only the tuxedo pants and not the jacket, only his legs "know" how to fight.

The plot is even dumber than most of these things, the attempts at humor are far below average, and there is no spark at all between Chan and Hewitt. The usual outtakes at the end show us one supposedly funny moment that perhaps reveals more of the reason for the lack of chemistry on screen than they intended. The movie is too gross for kids and too uninteresting for anyone else.

Studio: DreamWorks
Director: Kevin Donovan
Cast: Debi Mazar, Jackie Chan, Jennifer Love Hewitt
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 99 minutes
Theatrical release: September 27, 2002
DVD release: February 25, 2003
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: action violence, sexual references, and language