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Around the World in 80 Days is confused. Not confusing - confused. what is it exactly? Is is a Jackie Chan movie? Or a Steve Coogan movie? Is is a martial arts movie? A comedy? A romance? Is it for kids? Or adults? Basically it has everything - but it has no real identity. And that's probably why it didn't fare as well as expected with audiences.
The movie stars Steve Coogan as Phileas Fogg, a rogue inventor in late 19th century England. Then there's Jackie Chan who stars as Passepartout, a man on the run from the police after stealing a jade Buddha from the Bank of England. In order to hide, he teams up with Fogg as his valet and acts as a guinea pig in his inventions - the first of which is to prove that man can travel faster than 50 MPH. After the accomplish this feat, Fogg brings his findings before the Academy of Science, headed by a stuffed shirt named Lord Kelvin (Jim Broadbent). Unfortunately, Fogg is years ahead of his time, and being such, he's the laughing stock of the scientific community - the majority of whom are against scientific progress, convinced that the status quo is the way to go. And when Fogg and Kelvin get into a pissing match about his findings, Fogg foolishly begins spouting jargon about how man can travel around the world, by his calculations, in 80 days. Lord Kelvin challenges Phileas to live up to this claim - or face banishment from ever practicing science again. In turn, Kelvin will give up his seat as head of the Academy. So, Phileas Fogg and Passepartout head off on a whirlwind adventure around the globe. Along the way, they pick up the beautiful Monique La Roche (Cecile De France) and meet a variety of colorful characters ranging from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Luke and Owen Wilson. And like I said - laughter, romance, action, martial arts, suspense.
Like the various elements of the movie, there's no shortage of special features on this DVD. But again, like the movie, there's nothing really all that spectacular.
First, there's a standard making-of featurette titled "Discovering 'Around the World in 80 Days'". Here, we get the basics including story, characters, locations and stunts all with comments from the cast and crew. They mix in the odd blooper which is nice, and we get a nice look at the making of the movie, but there's nothing original. The next featurette, titled "Around the World of Jackie Chan" is a brief tribute to Chan's contribution to the film. We get cast and crew interviews going on about his genius and how he pours himself into his work. And he deserves the kudos. Knowing that he does as much as he does really makes you appreciate his work that much more. For an audio commentary, we get a full length chat with director Frank Coraci and star Steve Coogan. The two sit together and reminisce about the making of the movie and provide some insight into their filmmaking adventure. Sounds like they had a great time - and Coogan really comes off as a charismatic guy.
The rest of the features include some 9 deleted scenes with optional commentary from Coraci and a music video for "Everybody All Over The World" by Dave Stewart and the Sylvia School Children's Choir.
Around the World in 80 Days wasn't really a bad movie. It showcased a little bit of everything, and did well in doing so. Some of the effects were weak and the acting was none too admirable, but it still managed to be a fun ride. Maybe it just tried too hard to be too many things and in doing so, failed at being any one thing special.
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