Around the World in 80 Days (2004)

Around the World in 80 Days (2004)

5/10

Starring

Steve Coogan

Jackie Chan

Cécile de France

Directed by Frank Coraci

I do not know if you saw the 1956’s Around the World in 80 Days, reason being, these two movies differ. The movie also differ greatly from the novel to which both movies were adapted from.

For me I had more fun watching the 1956 version than I did watching this remake. The 1956 version won five Academy Awards which included Best Picture and Best Cinematography. What puts that film above this remake is the story and the cinematography, the sights in that movie were more magnificent.

Now there are major significant differences between Fogg and Passepartout from the 1956 version and the remake. They took some of Passepartout characteristics from the 1956 version and gave them to Fogg and vice versa.

Also, in here Passepartout joined Fogg on this expedition for his own selfish reasons, while in the 1956 version he was truly Fogg’s Valet.

Set in the 1890s, this here plot has Fogg (Steve Coogan) being a clumsy, bumbling inventor who seems to be head and shoulders ahead of the rest in the Royal Academy of Science. He seems to be wanting to discover more, while the rest believe everything that needs to be discovered has been found already.

For this he is not well respected in the scientific community.

Xing (Jackie Chan) robs the Bank of England and while trying to get away from the police he runs into Fogg who at that point was looking for a new valet. Fogg thinks Xing has come to apply for the job, Xing wanting to get off the streets takes the job and lies that his name is Passepartout.

With the police about, Xing decided to stick with Fogg. Fogg made a wager with his scientific colleagues. He is to travel around the world in 80 days. If he wins, he will become Minister of Science and if not, he will destroy his lab and never invent anything again.

With Xing accompanying him on this crazy expedition they begin their journey which they started in Paris, where they meet Fogg’s love interest Monique La Roche (Cécile de France). She joins them on this journey which was plagued with numerous series of unfortunate events.

Jackie Chan got to show us some of his martial art skills and Cécile was more fun to me that Coogan was. Coogan to me seem to be a drag in this movie, whose acting was not good enough to make me like his character.

This movie was a box office flop and had bad reviews.

Like the 1956 version, this movie also showcases some very beautiful visual masterpieces you can see around the world.

Is the movie watchable for the fun of it, to be honest it is. I have found myself watching the movie numerous times just to see Jackie Chan and Cécile, but I cannot in good sense tell anyone to go see this movie without warning them that its story is not so cool.