Around the world in 80 days - 2004

A bit silly but never too much as to be unacceptable, it's quite funny and enjoyable. It's not at all a remake of the old movie, there are many things that are different or bluntly added to the original story. Basically there are two stories colliding into one: story a) Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan) is a British inventor full of rather eccentric ideas, like "one day men will fly" or "a man could travel around the world in 80 days". The head of the Royal Academy of Science Lord Kelvin (Jim Broadbent) doesn't believe it and quite despises  Fogg, and they make a bet. If Fogg, who has never travelled anywhere, can go around the world and be back in 80 days, he'll take Lord Kelvin's place in the Academy, but if he fails he'll have to destroy his laboratory and stop being an inventor, he'll never invent anything again. Story b) A precious and sacred jade Buddha has been stolen from the Chinese village Lanzhou and given to Lord Kelvin in exchange for weapons, who then put it in the 'safest' place in the world... until Lau Xing (Jackie Chan) robs the Bank of England to get it back :-D
The police are looking for him so he finds refuge as Fogg's new valet :-) He tells him his name is Passpartou (of course he wouldn't say his real name, but how he got to Passpartou from LauXing I don't know) and he takes advantage of the bet to get back to China as quickly as possible.
First stop: Paris. They meet Monique (Cécile De France), a pretty girl who wants to be an impressionist. She joins them in their travels because she wants to see the world, and needless to say, Fogg and Monique will fall in love, no surprise there.
They travel to Turkey, India and finally China. All the time they are attacked by the 'black scorpions' warriors, following the orders of the female Chinese warlord (I don't think the word warlady exists...) that gave the jade Buddha to Lord Kelvin, and by Kelvin's attempts to stop them by corrupting cops and sending out a wanted ad, claiming Fogg robbed the bank and escaped using the bet as an excuse. Monique quickly learns Xing's secret, but keeps it safe. Once in China though, Fogg learns the truth by himself and is deeply troubled by it, feeling betrayed. Right there and then the 'black scorpions' attack again but Xing is one of the "ten tigers of Canton" and all together they succeed in defeating them. Fogg decides to go on alone, but he needs help: in San Francisco he is robbed of everything he has and ends up a beggar. Luckily for him his friends followed him to help.
In New York they have the final showdown with the scorpions and warlord Fang. Xing fights them all but Fang's quite tough. Fogg has the opportunity to go on with his journey leaving Xing fighting, but he can't leave him in danger so he stops to help, missing his boat. Of course he's not much help at all, but Monique is :-) She knocks Fang out and they continue to England where they arrive on a flying machine designed by Fogg. Once in London, Kelvin wants them arrested. All the town's there to watch, while his friends try to unmask Kelvin's cheating and illegal actions. He's so full of himself he starts blabbering that he has the power and nobody can stop him, he even makes fun of the Queen! Shame on him! He's very disrespectful , but the Queen herself comes (Kathy Bates) to order his arrest and inform Fogg and friends that they haven't lost, since there is still a whole day :-) Victory, obviously :-)
Now I found it very funny, Jackie Chan was really funny :lol: I didn't much like Coogan-Fogg but the film was fun: Xing claiming to be French to be hired explaining his Chinese accent by saying that his French dad never talked while his Chinese mother talked all the time :-) I found that funny, basically I found every scene with Chan funny. Surprisingly for me, I quite liked Monique, nice character and nice acting, her move while knocking Fang out was good enough for me and her meow after Xing told her she was the 11th tiger was somehow cute and funny, which is even more surprising, since it would have been so easy to mess that up and appear annoying instead.
There were a lot of guest stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger was a Prince met in Turkey, half funny and half embarassing, honestly. Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson were the Wright brothers that help them in the desert. John Cleese was the funny policeman in London when they arrive. I liked that scene. :-)
I don't remember ever hearing about this movie but it's not a bad one. I could have been happier with another Fogg, and Schwarzy was unnecessary, but the rest I liked.
Both the action scenes and the funny lines were alright :-)


ITA il giro del mondo in 80 giorni