There was little to make the 1956 movie version of Around the World in 80 Days a classic. It was essentially an excuse to showcase the (then new) widescreen format with nice landscapes and an all-star lineup (there were some 40 big-name cameo appearances).
As an extra bonus, it also showed just how easily Academy Award voters can be tricked into mistaking expensive gimmickry for art. It won best picture.
So this new, family-friendly adaptation of Jules Verne's novel can hardly be called a travesty. But it can't be called a very good movie, either.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FOX MOVIES
It's produced by a company, Walden Media, that wants to educate while entertaining the little ones without alienating mom and dad. The film just kind of rolls along without building up much narrative momentum. Not exactly boring, even clever and exciting in fits and starts, the new 80 still proves that, in the Spy Kids 21st century, Victorian-era fabulism plays just as old as it sounds.
The producers have tried to make the antique seem cool. Their efforts, to borrow a phrase from another literary source, are quixotic.
They've turned Passepartout, the French sidekick of globe-trotting English gent Phileas Fogg, into an acrobatic Chinese thief played by Jackie Chan (
PHOTO COURTESY OF FOX MOVIES
Chan, of course, has something of a child fan base, but that's mostly from TV cartoons (around the world, he's a much bigger movie star than he is here). How much of the pre-tween audience either of these guys are going to pack in is a pretty looming question mark.
Frank Coraci, who does Adam Sandler comedies, directs the movie, in which there are faint reflections of the earlier picture's cameo star galaxy. These range from the inexplicable, such as classy Oscar winners Jim Broadbent and Kathy Bates (well, she was in Coraci's Waterboy) to Rob Schneider (probably most kid-pleasing of the lot) to the sheerly loony last acting hoo-hah of California's current governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger as a vain and horny Turkish prince.
This makes the movie feel like a commercially calculated project built from faulty initial formulas. Those youngsters who do go will learn many, somewhat inaccurate things about the late 19th century: Who the Impressionists were; what the Wright brothers' most significant contribution to manned flight was; where the Statue of Liberty came from; and more -- if they're still awake.
Oh, dear, I'm not making it sound like very much fun, am I? Well, 80 is definitely more fun than school.
It's certainly not the greatest Jackie Chan movie ever, but the kung fu clown does deliver some fine slapstick while hanging from a hot air balloon and choreographs some clever martial arts mayhem in Paris, India, China and New York. Fogg's numerous inventions have a certain overbuilt, paleo-futuristic charm to them. And the film looks nice.
European locations were filmed in and around Berlin, Asian settings in Thailand. Too much obvious CGI is used to establish many long-since-changed locales.
The story this time involves Passepartout stealing a priceless jade Buddha from the British Museum. He only wants to return it to its rightful place in his home village but of course is considered a criminal. Fogg, meanwhile, makes the bet to circle the world with his strange new servant in order to win a post at the Royal Academy of Science. (Most members consider him a goofball.)
Pursued by British agents, Chinese assassins and sneaky saboteurs all the way, Fogg, Passepartout and feisty mademoiselle Monique (Belgian newcomer Cecile De France, pleasant and forgettable) bicker, betray and come to really appreciate one another.
But the new 80 never quite shakes the fatal sense of a good-for-you project, despite (bloodless) action, vulgar gags and ethnic stereotypes.
Overall, in this case, staying at home is a viable option.
Japan is celebrated for its exceptional levels of customer service. But the behavior of a growing number of customers and clients leaves a lot to be desired. The rise of the abusive consumer has prompted authorities in Tokyo to introduce the country’s first ordinance — a locally approved regulation — to protect service industry staff from kasuhara — the Japanese abbreviated form of “customer harassment.” While the Tokyo ordinance, which will go into effect in April, does not carry penalties, experts hope the move will highlight a growing social problem and, perhaps, encourage people to think twice before taking out their frustrations
Two years ago my wife and I went to Orchid Island off Taitung for a few days vacation. We were shocked to realize that for what it cost us, we could have done a bike vacation in Borneo for a week or two, or taken another trip to the Philippines. Indeed, most of the places we could have gone for that vacation in neighboring countries offer a much better experience than Taiwan at a much lower price. Hence, the recent news showing that tourist visits to Pingtung County’s Kenting, long in decline, reached a 27 year low this summer came
From a Brooklyn studio that looks like a cross between a ransacked Toys R Us and a serial killer’s lair, the artist David Henry Nobody Jr is planning the first survey of his career. Held by a headless dummy strung by its heels from the ceiling are a set of photographs from the turn of the century of a then 30-year-old Nobody with the former president of the US. The snapshots are all signed by Donald Trump in gold pen (Nobody supplied the pen). They will be a central piece of the New York artist’s upcoming survey in New York. This
Oct. 7 to Oct. 13 The Great Dragon Flags were so lavish and intricate that it’s said to have exhausted the supplies of three embroidery shops. Others say that the material cost was so high that three shops quit during production and it was finished by a fourth. Using threads with pure gold, the final price to create the twin banners was enough to buy three houses in the 1920s. Weighing 30kg each and measuring 454cm by 535cm by 673cm, the triangular flags were the pride of the Flying Dragons (飛龍團), a dragon dance troupe that performed for Chaotian