A PRETTY BLEAK BLACK-TIE AFFAIR.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic 'THE TUXEDO,'' Jackie Chan's latest American production, looks much too American for the Hong Kong martial arts comedian's own good. While no Chan film is without its high-speed slapstick slapstick Comedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous, often violent action. It took its name from a paddlelike device, probably introduced by 16th-century commedia dell'arte troupes, that produced a resounding whack when one comic actor used it to ingenuity, ``Tuxedo,'' which is about an Armani suit that turns its wearer into a high-tech lethal weapon, ``enhances'' Chan's acrobatic wizardry wiz·ard·ry n. pl. wiz·ard·ries 1. The art, skill, or practice of a wizard; sorcery. 2. a. A power or effect that appears magical by its capacity to transform: with obvious wire, camera and digital assists. Sure, at 48, Chan may not be as spry An application framework from Adobe for building rich Internet applications using HTML. Spry takes the tedium out of writing AJAX code and also includes routines for creating animation effects and building widgets. For more information, visit http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry. as he once was. But the charm, and thrill, of his movies has always rested in seeing him do things no one should be physically capable of - and that your eyes are not being fooled while watching him do it. Otherwise, it's hard not to feel cheated. The only really ticklesome thing in this movie is Chan's impression of James Brown. And I'm not sure I bought the leg split. In the film, which is probably the most Toronto-looking feature ever set in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Chan plays a hapless, but incredibly skilled, immigrant taxi driver named Jimmy Tong. Impressed by his wheelmanliness, the top-secret CSA (1) (Canadian Standards Association, Toronto, Ontario, www.csa.ca) A standards-defining organization founded in 1919. It is involved in many industries, including electronics, communications and information technology. hires Jimmy to chauffeur its No. 1 agent, the suave Clark Devlin (``The Patriot's'' Jason Isaacs, putting on his best Bond). But when an assassination Assassination See also Murder. assassins Fanatical Moslem sect that smoked hashish and murdered Crusaders (11th—12th centuries). [Islamic Hist.: Brewer Note-Book, 52] Brutus conspirator and assassin of Julius Caesar. [Br. attempt leaves Devlin in a coma that only Jimmy knows about, someone has to stop a nasty European water baron (Ritchie Coster Cos´ter n. 1. One who hawks about fruit, green vegetables, fish, etc. ) from turning the nation's free H20 supply deadly toxic. So Jimmy puts on Devlin's tux, and soon discovers that it's wired to turn him into a mean fighting (and, when programmed to, dancing) machine. But as remarkable as the suit is, it can't keep Jimmy from getting in way over his head. And it doesn't help that his relationship with smart but grumpy, first-time agent Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt) gets off on the wrong foot to the wrong face. Chan is good for his usual demolition duties, the targets of which include the English language, but the joy seems to be missing from even the stunt sequences that appear purely practical. Maybe that's because first- time feature director Kevin Donovan, who has helmed a number of award-winning commercials, makes the common ad man's mistake of framing-in and quick-cutting to what he thinks is a scene's strongest element, rather than letting longer, wider shots just follow the full flow of Chan's choreography. For her part, Hewitt tries to do some funny kung fu but is mainly around to pitch exposition and catch cleavage jokes. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to ``The Tuxedo'' kicking itself up into a class act is its generic, off-the-rack script. Credited to an odd assortment of writers whose backgrounds range from ``Ice Age'' to ``The Cosby Show'' to ``crazy/beautiful,'' it's a series of sub-007 sets and set-pieces, lame insults and cheesy cheesy (che´ze) caseous. innuendo innuendo n. from Latin innuere, "to nod toward." In law it means "an indirect hint." "Innuendo" is used in lawsuits for defamation (libel or slander), usually to show that the party suing was the person about whom the nasty statements were made or why the comments . And even though the central gimmick is put to exhaustive use, any cleverness that might be drawn from the concept that clothes-make-the-superman seems to have been squashed in favor of the most numbing, action-comedy cliches. Unless, that is, James Brown impersonations really, really slay slay tr.v. slew , slain , slay·ing, slays 1. To kill violently. 2. past tense and past participle often slayed Slang you. THE TUXEDO - Two stars (PG-13: violence, sexual content) Starring: Jackie Chan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ritchie Coster, Jason Isaacs, Debi Mazar, James Brown. Director: Kevin Donovan. Running time: 1 hr. 39 min. Playing: Citywide. In a nutshell: Unfunny spy comedy is one of the few movies in which Jackie Chan's moves look fake. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Jackie Chan models his latest threads - definitely not off the rack - in ``The Tuxedo.'' |
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