Review: Around the World in 80 Days (***)

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS
A film review by Steve Rhodes

Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****): ***


AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS is Disney's silly and energetic riff on the
classic Jules Verne novel. Although it has some similarities to the 1956
movie of the same name, this version, which stars Jackie Chan, is a mixture
of his physical comedy with an old science fiction tale, featuring
steam-driven mechanical gadgets galore.



Steve Coogan, last seen in COFFEE AND CIGARETTES, plays the lead character
of Phileas Fogg. Chan plays Passepartout, Fogg's "French" valet. You might
wonder how the heavily accented Chan can play a Chinese man trying to pass
himself off as French. Passepartout explains that his French father never
spoke while his Chinese mother never shut up.



The dual themed plot has Passepartout being chased by an evil Chinese
warlord, along with the more traditional part of the story, a wager between
Fogg and Lord Kelvin (Jim Broadbent), the head of the Royal Academy of
Sciences. The wager is that Fogg will not be able to circumnavigate the
globe in eighty days or less. Set just before "the turn of the century,"
the slapstick movie is filled with madcap mayhem. Some of the best parts of
the picture are some good-spirited cameos, including one by the Governator.



In a type of role that once would have gone to Piper Perabo before she
dropped off the radar screen, Cécile De France plays Monique, a hat check
girl and would be impressionist painter, who becomes Fogg's other sidekick
and his girlfriend.



Perhaps the best part of the production is the way that Disney cuts to
magically colorful, animated overlays of street scenes whenever our three
world travelers arrive in a new location. AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS is
pure fluff, but it's cute.



AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS runs a tad long at 2:00. It is rated PG for
"action violence, some crude humor and mild language" and would be
acceptable for kids of all ages.



The film opens nationwide in the United States on Wednesday, June 16, 2004.
In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century
theaters and the Camera Cinemas.



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