The Tuxedo

2002

★½

This movie features a scene where Jackie Chan beats up James Brown and then takes his place singing with his band. That is the highlight.

The filmmakers failed to recognize an issue in their story’s construction. It is about Chan as a humble cab driver who inherits a high-tech tuxedo that gives its wearer greatly enhanced fighting abilities, or can turn you into a walking disaster if put on the wrong setting. Chan is a good enough physical comedian to make getting yanked around by his suit sort of amusing once or twice. But there’s nothing inherently funny about the scenes where Chan suddenly gains incredible martial arts abilities because he’s Jackie Chan and he’s made dozens of movies where he has incredible martial arts abilities. Imagine Nobody with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Bob Odenkirk role. It wouldn’t work; the whole concept hinges on the incongruity of the person in the lead role doing something unexpected. The Tuxedo needs, I don’t know, Christopher Walken or someone like that in the lead role to work.

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