The Tuxedo

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The Tuxedo
File:The Tuxedo film.jpg
Directed by Kevin Donovan
Produced by Adam Schroeder
John H. Williams
Screenplay by Michael J. Wilson
Michael J. Leeson
Story by Phil Hay
Matt Manfredi
Michael J. Wilson
Starring Jackie Chan
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Music by Christophe Beck
John Debney
Production
company
Blue Train Productions
DreamWorks SKG
Parkes/MacDonald Productions
Vanguard Films
Distributed by DreamWorks Pictures
Release dates
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  • September 27, 2002 (2002-09-27)
Running time
 98 minutes
Language English
Cantonese
Budget $60 million
Box office $104,391,623

The Tuxedo is a 2002 American comedy–action film directed by Kevin Donovan and starring Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt. It is a spy spoof that involves a special tuxedo that grants its wearer special abilities and a corporate terrorist threatening to poison the United States' fresh water supply with bacteria that spills electrolytes into the blood and totally dehydrates the host.[1]

Plot

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Jimmy Tong (Jackie Chan) is a taxi driver notorious for his speed and ability to get his customer anywhere in the least amount of time. His reputation lands him a job as the personal chauffeur of the mysterious but wealthy Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs). Jimmy does not really know what his new boss' job is, but Devlin's friendly nature, imperturbable demeanor, and willingness to offer Jimmy advice wins Jimmy over and the two become friends. Jimmy has no idea that Devlin is a spy, and when an attempt to kill Devlin with a car bombing sends him into a coma, Jimmy ends up with Devlin's recent case notes and a special watch that controls Devlin's rather unusual tuxedo.

The tuxedo is a gadget capable of granting its wearer special abilities (including martial arts, speed, the ability to dance, and various acrobatics) which Jimmy must use to stop the terrorist group responsible for Devlin's attempted murder. Headed by the notorious Dietrich Banning (Ritchie Coster), the goal of the Banning Corporation is to take over the global drinking water supply, starting with the poisoning of major US reservoirs by means of genetically modified water strider insects. These water striders have bacteria that can spread from person to person. By pure chance Jimmy is joined by a genius scientist with aspirations of field work, Delilah "Del" Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt). Blaine is completely new to field work and is delighted to be on assignment with Devlin, only to be very confused by Jimmy as he impersonates Devlin, relying on the tuxedo's special abilities to compensate for his lack of skill and training.

At first, Blaine thinks Jimmy is weird and annoying, and then a fraud when Jimmy's impersonation is finally exposed. She confiscates his borrowed tuxedo and attempts to stop the evil Dietrich Banning on her own by feigning a desire to become a turncoat for Banning Corporation. Meanwhile Jimmy is ready to give up and go back to his life as a taxi driver, but while packing his belongings he discovers that Devlin had ordered a second tuxedo for Jimmy himself, believing that Jimmy could also be a great agent. Using his own tuxedo, Jimmy defeats the villain, Banning, Jimmy then throws the queen of the water striders into Banning's mouth. He is then infected with bacteria from the water strider. The other remaining water striders does the same. They attack Banning and he then dies later on.

Devlin recovers from his injuries and Jimmy and Blaine admit a tentative attraction for each other and walk away to buy coffee.

Cast

Soundtrack

Initially scored by Christophe Beck, John Debney was brought in to rescore the film (incorporating Beck's thematic material). Both composers ultimately had cues included in the final version.

Varèse Sarabande released a soundtrack album on October 1, 2002, including different cues written by the composers for the same scenes. Cues by Debney are in italics, cues by Beck in bold.

  1. Jimmy's Tux (2:50)
  2. Skateboard Chase (2:00)
  3. Mad Bike Messenger (1:04)
  4. Jimmy's Dream (:48)
  5. Main Title - "The Tuxedo" (3:01)
  6. First Mission (2:54)
  7. Swallow The Queen (2:25)
  8. Demolition (1:20)
  9. Putting on Tux (1:59)
  10. Demolition Program (1:02)
  11. Rope Fight (2:58)
  12. Rope Fight (2:14)
  13. Superhuman (1:39)
  14. Walter Strider (1:21)
  15. High Noon (:49)
  16. Banning Opens The Pods (2:29)
  17. Banning Swallows Queen (:49)
  18. Jimmy Saves Blaine (1:50)
  19. Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine) - James Brown (3:19)

Production

During filming in Toronto, Chan and Love Hewitt appeared on an on-set webcam and interacted with fans.[2]

Release

Box office

On a reported budget of $50 million, the movie grossed $50,547,998 in the United States. In its opening weekend the film grossed a moderate $15 million from 3,022 theaters. The film total worldwide gross is $104,391,623 USD.

Reception

The Tuxedo received negative reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times commented that "The movie is silly beyond comprehension, and even if it weren't silly, it would still be beyond comprehension" but does comment that the film has its good moments. He gave the film one and a half stars out of four. Out of 137 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, only 30 were positive, giving the film a "Rotten" score of 22%. American film critic Wheeler Winston Dixon described the trademark action comedy as having an "unlikely pairing" of Jennifer Love Hewitt with Chan, and noted that Chan's doing his own stunts, even in his middle age, added a "welcome touch of verisimilitude to the endless succession of doubles who normally populate such films."[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Wheeler Winston Dixon, 2003, Wallflower Press, London and New York, Visions of the Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema, Retrieved November 28, 2014, ISBN 1-903364-74-4 (paperback) ISBN 1-903364-38-8 (hardcover), see page 18, lines 15-20

External links

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