Lo smoking

* 1/2 out of ****

When it comes to pure charisma, the only Hong Kong actor who matches with Jackie Chan is Chow Yun-Fat (who is, overall, probably a better actor). What is it about Chan that appeals to so many people? It's not only that he does all his stunts for real, but he seems like a natural, care-free, fun-loving kind of guy. In every film he's been in, you can't help but notice his enthusiasm, even when he's starring in crap.

And thus we segue to The Tuxedo, a sort-of spy spoof which Chan stars as Jimmy Tong, a reckless taxi driver with a crush on a woman working in an art exhibition. Because of his top-notch driving skills, he's hired as Clark Devlin's (Jason Isaacs) personal driver. Devlin is one suave fellow, with a fine tuxedo to boot, but he falls into a coma after an incident involving an explosive.

Tong, as his good friend and employee, feels obligated to find out what happened to his boss so he dresses himself in Devlin's tuxedo, which apparently enables the wearer superhuman ability and agility. Posing as Devlin, Tong partners with a secret agent named Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt) to expose a crime to poison the world's water supply.

For a good twenty or so minutes, the film is actually pretty enjoyable fluff, with a cool car "chase," which is really just Chan driving real fast, but fun to watch, nonetheless. However, once Hewitt is introduced as Chan's partner, the whole thing goes downhill with mindless blather about water. It seems the villain intends to poison the world's water supply so that only his bottled water is safe.

Utter stupidity of the plan aside (poison water, ecosystem...dead, anyone?), it's just not the kind of set-up we want for a Chan flick. This isn't the first film he's posed as a secret agent (see the far superior First Strike or Who am I?) but this time around, it ultimately drags the picture down. For one thing, the film's most interesting character isn't Chan, it's Isaacs' Clark Devlin, who really is a cool and suave individual (Isaac himself has always been a very underrated actor).

Chan is his enthusiastic self as usual, but when it comes to performing nifty stunts, forget it, the stuff here looks too manipulated, which entirely defeats the charm of watching Jackie Chan take on countless opponents. The humor isn't very good, either, with relentlessly predictable jokes ("nice rack") and an astonishingly digressive segment involving Chan performing like James Brown, which is cringe-worthy, to say the least.

Last, and possibly least, there's Jennifer Love Hewitt, who's a fairly pretty actress and as far as genuine talent goes...well, I've seen much worse (Denise Richards, I'm looking at you). But here, she's just annoying, called on by the script to do nothing but whine and complain. Worse yet, the movie never even opts to give us a good cleavage shot, which might have made the more annoying bits bearable.

As far as story goes, the plot is lame, the villains make zero impression, and the gadgets...well, the tuxedo IS the gadget and it's not a very impressive one, at that. For superior martial arts entertainment, check out First Strike or Who am I?

I like this movie now more than when I first saw it.

The movie is really a mixture of Hong Kong style action with Hollywood style production. And it has Jackie Chan style humor that goes with it.

When this movie was made Jennifer Hewitt was still a relative unknown, and it seemed odd that she was Jackie Chan's sidekick. She kind of lacked the softness or sexiness of a woman at the time, and didn't soften the touch of the team. But now she's well known, and it's much easier to pick out her signature style of being the "Brain".

It's amazing to see Jackie Chan mimicking the move that's supposedly the work of the "Tuxedo". Human Jackie Chan is making the tuxedo look like it's making the human Jackie Chan move like super human.

Maybe teaming Jennifer Hewitt with Jackie Chan was bit experimental at the time, but after a decade, I can see how beautifully this movie is made, and how interesting the action is with Jackie and Jennifer as a team.

Disappointingly, this film was a step down for both Jackie Chan and Jennifer-Love, whom I actually idolize. Chan was trying to be funny while being 'manipulated' by the tux, but turned out to be corny (at least for me). I'm not sure if he's already too old for the job, but if he goes on with his upcoming movies like that, his name will just fade away from the movie industry, and the likes of Jet Li will very much make a better replacement for him.

The movie also proved that Love-Hewitt wasn't a comedienne after all. She's no match to Reese Witherspoon when it comes to actress versatility (the latter can do both funny and sad movies). She should just stick to drama or other pretty-girl films.

What do you look for in movies? A deep twisting plot? A story that stays with you long after and still stirs up emotions? Well you won't find it here! But... why does that have to be a bad thing? If you want a film like I mentioned, there are many out there. But, if you want to sit back and enjoy some light entertainment that will still make you laugh, no-one does it better than Jackie Chan. Sure, the plot is light, but what did you expect? I have seen this film twice now and would watch it again anytime. I have seen reviews saying this film was terrible purely because of JLH's role... I say make up your own mind, I'm not promising you will like this movie but at least give it a chance... When you have made as many movies as JLH and Jackie Chan, not every film you have starred in will appeal to every critic, but this may be just the right kind of film for you. One other point- Many of the reviews I have read say something like "This film is terrible, I'd rather watch Sin City, or We Were Soldiers," and while I like these movies myself, you need to remember that there are parents with young children who may struggle to find a film they are happy to show their children, and this movie may be more suitable for younger viewers, while still amusing parents. If you have read this, I want you to know that this is only my opinion, so I'll say again "Try it for yourself."

Despite the numerous failures Jackie Chan had in trying to break into Hollywood, and now that he has, it still seems that he never quite learnt the moral of is conquest. Simply put, this was equal, nay I correct myself, can be classed below some of his other failures in terms of quality. But fortunately he has become a big enough star for the film to be pulled off - but only just

I won't try to sum up the plot, partly because it's be done by others already, and partly because it is so disjointed and skewed that it struggles to make any sense. Frankly, the intelligence level of the characters appeared to be equivalent to that of a carrot, and indeed the writers seemed to share that intelligence. Even Saturday morning kids cartoons (including Jackie's own) have much greater knowledge than this!

After the success of the Rush Hour films, and Shanghai Noon/Knights, this film was a sheer disappointment. I love seeing Jackie Chan as part of a double act in his English language films, but The Tuxedo shows he can't quite pull it off alone. Jennifer Love Hewitt appeared as simple window dressing for Chan, and despite the miniscule amount of chemistry that did appear (better than none), Chan looked desperate in trying to pull of his one-liners.

It is hard to understand how the script left the storyboard as it did. The plot isn't the worst in the world, but the way the film was constructed left very little artistic and entertainment value. It was almost too rushed. And written without Jackie Chan in mind, I feel. It's too formulaic, too 'let's make a quick buck'.

I am a devoted Jackie Chan fan and one of my life's joys was the fortune to meet him and to organise his appearance at Oxford University in 2000. It's hard for a fan to criticise his hero, but sometimes he must, especially when, as in this case, his loyal fans pay money only to be disappointed.

The Tuxedo has to be one of Jackie's lowlights. I very much hope that the man can continue to work on good scripts such as Rush Hour and leave behind the non-comical, formulaic scripts such as the Tuxedo that seem to have been written while on the toilet seat.

Sorry Jackie, but one I have to advise to avoid.