("Do Tuesdays work for you?" he leers farcically at De France.) In China it's revelations, family reunions and more spectacular and silly kung fu as Passepartout comes clean and kicks butts with some help from village holy man Sammo Hung. In Turkey, the trio is waylaid by a nutcase narcissistic prince ( Arnold Schwarzenegger) seeking to round out his day-of-the-week collection of wives. Meanwhile Jackie Chan fights off a kung-fu gang in an amusing, paint-splattering showdown that proves the stunt maestro refuses to let age and injuries catch up with him just yet. In Paris, the persnickety Fogg turns up his nose at Impressionism until he meets one of its pretty purveyors (Cécile De France), a spitfire pre-feminist who invites herself along on his adventure. (In this way the 2004 "80 Days" is not unlike the 1956 version starring David Niven.) Fogg is his ticket to safe passage - or so he thinks.ĭoggedly pursued by the Chinese mafia (who stole the Buddha in the first place) and an inept, crooked English constable who has been told Fogg pulled the bank job ( "Trainspotting's" Ewan Bremner, who has a gift for slapstick folly), our heroes make their way from country to country by whatever means necessary, encountering celebrity cameos and the late 19th century's greatest cultural and historical hits along the way. Passepartout has stolen a jade Buddha from a Bank of London vault in order to return it to its rightful place: his native village in China. Along the way, the group encounters an eclectic assortment of characters including Queen Victoria (Bates), a Scotland Yard Sergeant (Cleese), a hot air balloon engineer (Branson), a Turkish Prince (Schwarzenegger), an eccentric inventor (Schneider), the Wright Brothers (Owen and Luke Wilson), and many other international star cameos.Jules Verne might have a hard time recognizing his source material in the Jackie Chan action-comedy adaptation of "Around the World in 80 Days," but for non-purists, it's easy to forgive the many liberties taken in this funny, fleet-footed summer-matinee romp.Īlthough the ostensible main character is still screwball Victorian inventor Phileas Fogg (lanky Steve Coogan) - who wagers against the stuffed shirts of the English scientific establishment that he can circumnavigate the globe in the titular time period - this version of the story more literally revolves around Passepartout (Chan), Fogg's valet who has his own reasons for traipsing across continents. Their incredible adventure spans many colorful and exotic lands from historic London to Paris, Turkey, India, China, across the Great Seas, to a burgeoning United States, and more. Opposing the group is Lord Kelvin (Broadbent), who's wagered his position as head of the Royal Academy of Science against their journey's success. Joining them is Monique (De France), a young French artist who decides that a trip around the world would provide new inspiration. He seeks refuge with an eccentric London inventor, Phineas Fogg (Coogan), who puts his reputation, fortune, and career on the line in a daring bet to make it around the world in eighty days. In this highly inventive take on Verne's classic, Passepartout (Chan) must make it to China in order to return a valuable jade Buddha that was stolen from his family's village.
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