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The
Tuxedo Review: When Jimmy Tong (Chan) slips it on, the formal world of black tie is transformed into comedy mayhem as the tux takes control. He used to be an ordinary cabbie-turned-chauffeur, but slipping into the $2 billion super-spy suit inadvertently turns him into a dashing secret agent. Fit for trouble, this deluxe tux unwittingly thrusts Chan and his dazzling partner (Love Hewitt) into a dangerous world of international espionage. Jason Isaacs, Peter Stormare, Ritchie Coster, Debi Mazar and Mia Cottet also star. Critique The Tuxedo was another venture from Jackie Chan into the Western action comedy genre. Co-starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, the film sees Chan play a cab driver that stumbles across a $2 billion tuxedo. Made by a fictional United States' spy agency, the CSA, the garment endows its wearer with superhuman abilities. It will allow you to dance properly, fight furiously, jump stupendous heights, attract women effortlessly and a whole lot more. In fact, there seems to be virtually nothing that this special tuxedo can't manage for a man. It is up to Jimmy Tong (Jackie Chan) and real CSA operative Del Blain (Jennifer Love Hewitt) to save the world from the customary villain with a 007-style evil scheme for world domination. Chan is as loveable as always, enticing the audience with his unwitting charm. Unlike his usual turns as policemen and/or martial arts experts, Chan plays an ordinary man - a coward perhaps - who can't fight to save his life. Slipping into the tuxedo and activating a few buttons on the accompanying watch, however, allows Tong to fight in the customary Jackie Chan manner, with lots of frenzied acrobatics. The film is ridiculously silly, but strangely watchable in many places too. The entire concept of the tuxedo is overly far-fetched and will test even the most enthusiastic of fans. The technology inside it would be too advanced for a film set a thousand years in the future, let alone present day. All films obviously rely upon some suspension of disbelief from the audience, but this one takes things too far. The villain's plot to take over the world, which is always over-the-top in all films, sounds decidely plausible in comparison. Even aside from the tuxedo itself, there are various inconsistencies and unlikely events in the film that just don't pass scrutiny. The comedy is virtually non-existent due to the fact that, for an action comedy, there are remarkably few efforts at delivering jokes (aside from Chan's usual unscripted bumbling manner) - this makes the film's watchability all the more baffling. This is probably . Jennifer Love Hewitt fits in better than expected with Chan, but naturally has very little to work with from the start. The $60 million budget ensures that the special effects, sets and production design never look sub-standard, while the inclusion of Jackie Chan in the starring role treats the audience to lots of genuine action as opposed to stunt double trickery. Overall, an action comedy that delivers a fair amount of action and very little comedy - however, the film remains curiously watchable for the most part thanks to Chan's charm. 4 out of 10 The Video Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the disc looks good enough throughout, but never terrific. Colours are pleasingly reproduced and often very rich when required to be so. Meanwhile, sharpness is fairly good and black levels are solid. There is a tiny amount of edge enhancement in one or two places, but this never amounts to a proper issue and will go unnoticed without rigourous inspection. Since the film was made so recently, the source print was also relatively clean and in good condition, resulting in very few marks or specks being copied across to the transfer. The one characteristic that really lets down the visuals is an overly grainy look in a lot of scenes, which prevents the image from looking totally pristine and three-dimensional. Overall, however, this is a solid anamorphic transfer that meets expectations in most regards. 7 out of 10 The Audio Unlike the Region 1 disc, this title has no DTS 5.1 soundtrack to accompany the standard Dolby Digital 5.1 audio stream. However, the sound design was not terribly elaborate, even for an action film, meaning that the loss of DTS is not a major issue. The Dolby track is pretty powerful and more than liberal enough with rear speaker usage when delivering ambience and score. The speakers perk up significantly during the action scenes, sounding much more active and alive. The number of proper discrete effects to be heard from behind is somewhat lacking considering the genre, but pulled off quite well each time with good channel separation. The dialogue is, of course, perfectly audible from the front-centre channel and, overall, this is an above average soundtrack that could have done with more ambitious sound design. 7 out of 10 The Extras Aside from a few biographies and production notes, this disc offers an identical bonus material package to the US Region 1 title. Unless stated otherwise, the video extras are presented in (excellent) anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. For starters, the disc offers 13 minutes worth of deleted scenes from the cutting room floor - nine scenes are included altogether, but there is no option to play all the sequences automatically. This reel has a few completely needless scenes (mainly involving Chan getting up to all sorts at Clark Devlin's mansion), but is actually an essential watch for any fan of the film due to a handful of highly significant moments. For example, there is a full scene where Chan actually performs on-stage with James Brown, which is a sequence that featured heavily in theatrical promotion. Significant plot revelations concerning the CSA are also revealed, which would have impacted heavily on the tone of the ending. There's even a scene where Chan steals a chauffeur's uniform to 'The Saint' theme tune. The extras continue with 3 extended scenes, which clock in a further 6 minutes of viewing and offer a few trimmings from existing scenes. Unlike the deleted material, there is nothing terribly significant to be found amongst this collection of sequences - just obvious bloat that was best left out. Next up is a superb collection of outtakes which, over the course of its near-epic 7 minute running length, proves to be a brilliant addition to the disc. A gag reel is actually also shown over the end credits, but this separate one found amongst the extras includes the same bloopers and many more. Poor old Jackie Chan gets hurt a few times and fluffs his lines even more. Jennifer Love Hewitt can also be seen slowing up the production as she can't stop laughing in scene after scene after scene. This is definitely the most enjoyable extra on the entire disc and perfectly matched to the light nature of the film. Up next is the 'HBO: First Look - Tailor Made For Jackie Chan' featurette, which runs for a highly promotional 13 minutes. This item, which is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, has a cheesy voiceover but is worth catching for a few interviews and behind-the-scenes snippets. The supplements come to a close with the 2 minute theatrical trailer, which is given the full anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1 treatment. On a final note, the menus are animated and included with background sound in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Overall, the extras are anything but plentiful, although the comprehensive collection of cut material and outtakes, should be of significant value to fans. 6 out of 10 RATINGS SUMMARY Movie
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