I’ve always been more impressed with Jackie Chan’s foreign movies than his American ones. I did love Rush Hour, especially the second one, but the others are okay at best. The Tuxedo is quite possibly among the worst of them. It’s a spy movie that doesn’t do a very good job of being a spy movie, a comedy that doesn’t do a good job with being funny, and I don’t know that you can even call it a Martial Arts movie at all.

 

Jackie is Jimmy, a taxi driver given a shot at being chauffeur for a 007 type spy. When the spy is injured Jimmy learns his secret, a super-high-tech tuxedo that gives him super-human reflexes, dexterity, and agility. Jimmy puts it on, and can barely control his own actions. Promising his boss he'll continue to investigate the case that has felled the secret agent, he's pulled into a sinister plot that could contaminate the world’s water supply. He’s paired with the lovely but inexperienced Del who doesn’t realize Jimmy is not a real spy. He must protect his secret while keeping his promise to his boss to stop the bad guys while trying not to kill himself in the process.

 

I have nothing against Jennifer Love Hewitt. She’s certainly not hard on the eyes, and she can be a decent actress (although some would argue with that statement). So my dislike of her character has nothing to do with her specifically. It’s just that her whole character feels like nothing more substantial than a plot device. She makes a discovery in the lab and is sent off on a mission with a top secret agent. Just like that. On the one hand she has great respect for her superior, who she doesn’t realize is an impostor, of course, but on the other hand she acts like she’s the spy and he’s the apprentice even before he starts screwing things up. It’s done for the comedy aspect, but ends up creating a contradictory persona that is neither convincing nor particularly funny.

 

The whole plot feels forced; nothing that happens seems to be the natural effect of the cause. The sexuality between the lead characters (“this is my horny face”) feels injected for the sole purpose of having sexuality even if it is completely out of place. When we get to the core story elements (finally!) things start to work, but all the fringe bits feel tattered and useless.

 

One thing that got my hopes up about this movie was Jackie really cutting loose with his stunts using the plot device of the super-suit to pull off some really outrageous action. Not so. We get some funny moments that the average actor couldn’t have pulled off, but the action is sub-par next to many of Jackie’s other works. There’s too much reliance on wires and tricks instead of letting Jackie do what he does. It comes off as ho-hum for Jackie’s Martial Arts fans and the rest of the movie isn’t strong enough to save it.

 

The movie feels like the makers got so nervous about making it marketable that they didn’t fully commit themselves to any one audience. It feels like they cut back on the Martial Arts to get the general audience, then they cut back on the comedy to get the spy fans, but they cut back on the spy elements to keep the Martial Arts fans. Once the scope unraveled what comedy and action they did use the story ended up without any real foundation. This is evidenced in the deleted scenes which has better material than the movie itself. They trimmed out the strong elements to stay middle-of-the-road and came out with nothing to show for it.

 

Despite its lack there are some good moments. The James Brown scene is relatively entertaining if unrealistic. The bedroom scene with Jackie comically trying to avoid the overly aggressive sexual advances of a slightly drunk woman has perhaps the best mix of comedy and action. Still, these moments are few and far between.