Jackie Chan plays Jimmy Tong, a New York cabbie turned chauffeur for secret agent Clark Devlin. When forces unknown incapacitate Devlin, his mission passes to the unwitting Tong, along with Devlin’s tuxedo, a high-tech piece of equipment that turns Tong into a super-spy. Tong finds himself teamed up with water scientist and neophyte field agent Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt) as the two try to uncover a secret plot to ... well, if I said it here, it wouldn’t be secret, would it?
Is it okay to say that I liked this movie a lot, even though it wasn’t particularly good? Certainly fans looking for a Jackie Chan all-out action fest along the lines of a Project A or Police Story will be disappointed. Jackie gets the chance to show his stuff, but there are only a few fights, and no catch-your-breath spectacular stunts. This film is more along the lines of Gorgeous or Miracles--although with even less action, I suppose--with comedy and character coming to the forefront. Fortunately, unlike many American action heroes, Chan has the charm and personality to keep the viewer engaged even when he isn’t fighting. He convincingly conveys the confusion and befuddlement of an everyman caught up in situations bigger than himself. Ironically, for a movie without a huge amount of action, I was particularly struck by his talent during the action scenes. His body was doing all the incredible things we’re used to seeing Jackie Chan do, but his expressions and body language came across perfectly as a man who has lost control of his body.
This is the first time I’ve seen Jennifer Love Hewitt playing an adult, and while she seemed young, she didn’t seem high-school young. She did come across as the sort of character she played: a young scientist, probably just out of school, trying to prove herself in a new situation. She managed to keep her character’s snappy, bitchy lines funny, rather than coming across too much like a stereotypical hard-edged tough grrl. In short, she felt human. (It is a shame that she didn’t get more action sequences herself.) Her character didn’t receive too much depth or development, but that’s a criticism I have for this movie across the board. However, for the most part the actors (Hewitt, Chan, Jason Isaacs as Devlin, and Peter Stormare as an evil scientist) make their characters engaging and likeable despite their two-dimensionality.
These sorts of films aren’t particularly well-served by overly-complicated plots, and fortunately, this one was fairly straightforward. For the most part, the comic moments came out of the story, although one sequence--Jimmy is forced to fill in for Godfather of Soul James Brown--feels shoehorned in. Unfortunately, while the secret plot is appropriately over-the-top for a film about a super-powered tuxedo, it’s played a little too straight. Ritchie Coster, as the villainous mastermind Dietrich Banning, is too dull and straight, and it’s almost like he’s in a different movie. Director Kevin Donovan might have been better off bringing a more surreal touch to the whole thing, like the Spy Kids movies, where the weirder or wackier elements feel more comfortable because they fit into the overall tone of the film. On the other hand, Peter Stormare, as Banning’s scientist sidekick, does keep things from becoming too straight.
This is probably the weakest of Chan’s American films. It isn’t as mainstream as the Rush Hour movies, and it just plain isn’t as good as Shanghai Noon. But I thought it was fun, and I wouldn’t mind seeing these characters again, albeit in a better-written, better-directed movie.