"THE TUXEDO": A REVIEW

by Toni Müller

Tong, James Tong KICKBOXING onto the bandwagon of James Bond spoofs, Jackie Chan plays a clumsy New York taxi driver who finds himself playing the part of a secret agent and doing so in impeccable style thanks to a state-of-the-art tux.

Anyone familiar with Jackie Chan's films will know that he has to be one of the most agile athletes out there, one that can slip through small spaces, scale up sheer walls and tie bad guys up in knots.

For this reason, a lot of the comedy in The Tuxedo comes just from watching Chan bumbling about one minute and then suddenly launching James Brown into the air the next.

He is so good in fact, he make the super duper suit look fantastic. I'm quite convinced the film makers of The Tuxedo saved plenty of pennies on special effects, thanks to Chan's amazing skills, which are utilised to the optimum and which I'm sure they didn't have to enhance at all.

In The Tuxedo, taxi driver "Tong, James Tong" (Chan) gets a job working for suave millionaire Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs) as a driver. There are plenty of rules Jimmy has to learn, but none so important as "never touch the tux" -- which we soon learn is capable of helping the wearer dance the tango, stick to walls, perform mind-bending stunts, and sing like James Brown.

When Devlin lands up in hospital after a botched assassination attempt, Jimmy is instructed to wear the tux, but gets mistaken for Devlin by his new rookie partner Del Blaine (Hewitt), and becomes involved in the dangerous and exciting world of espionage.

Love Hewitt is actually quite amusing as the uptight, bolshy agent with a vicious right hook and these two agents, both equally silly, botching up all sorts of situations does make for a number of laughs.

Don't forget the outtakes at the end of the film either -- they're a quintessential part of Chan's films and remind you that it's all done in good fun in the end.

Perhaps one child leaving the cinema put it best, saying to his buddy, "I like Jackie Chan because of the fighting and because he's funny." I think quite a few adults might agree.