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 don’t know if you’ve seen the 1956 Around the World in 80 Days, but these two movies differ greatly. The movie also differs significantly from the novel both 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, including 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 some major differences between Fogg and Passepartout in the 1956 version and the remake. They took some of Passepartout's characteristics from the 1956 version and gave them to Fogg, and vice versa.
Also, in this version, Passepartout joins Fogg on this expedition for his own selfish reasons, while in the 1956 version, he was truly Fogg’s valet.

Set in the 1890s, the plot here has Fogg (Steve Coogan) as a clumsy, bumbling inventor who seems to be head and shoulders above the rest at the Royal Academy of Science. He’s eager to discover more, while the rest believe everything that needs to be discovered has already been found.
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, is 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, saying his name is Passepartout.

With the police close behind, Xing decides to stick with Fogg. Fogg makes a wager with his scientific colleagues: he will travel around the world in 80 days. If he wins, he’ll become Minister of Science; if not, he will destroy his lab and never invent anything again.

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

Jackie Chan gets to show off some of his martial arts skills, and Cécile was more fun to me than Coogan was. Coogan, to me, seemed to be a drag in this movie, and his acting wasn’t good enough to make me like his character.

This movie was a box office flop and received bad reviews.
Like the 1956 version, this movie also showcases some beautiful visual masterpieces from around the world.

Is the movie watchable for the fun of it? To be honest, it is. I’ve found myself watching the movie numerous times just to see Jackie Chan and Cécile. But I cannot, in good conscience, tell anyone to go see this movie without warning them that its story isn’t so great.