Release Date:  June 16, 2004
Rating:  PG (for action violence, some crude humor and mild language.)
Genre:  Adventure/Comedy
Run Time: 119 minutes
Director:  Frank Coracci
Actors:   Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Cecile De France, Robert Fyfe, Jim Broadbent, Ian MacNiece, David Ryall,

Jackie Chan (“Rush Hour”) is up to his usual antics, in a remake of a classic novel that won’t go down in history, but is mostly safe for older kids.

When a strange Asian man (Chan) drops out of a tree, scientist Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan, “24 Hour Party People”) believes the lie that “Passepartout,” a name he thought of on the spur of the moment, is a French valet looking for work. In reality, Passpartout (real name: Lao Xing), has just robbed the Bank of England of a precious jade statue that was recently stolen from his village in China. Working for Fogg is the perfect way to hide from the authorities, who are on Xing’s trail. And, since Fogg has scared off his other valets by making them participate in crazy inventions – his passion – Fogg hires the all-too-willing Passpartout.

Fogg then makes a bet with Lord Kelvin (Jim Broadbent), the powerful head of England’s scientific community, that he can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. Fogg sees it as a way to gain acceptance for his ideas, and agrees to tear down his laboratory, should he fail. Should he win, however, he will take Kelvin’s position. Passepartout sees the trip as the perfect way to get home quickly with the statue and evade arrest. So, along with Monique, (Cecile de France), a pretty French Impressionist painter the men meet on their first stop in Paris, they begin their trip. But, General Fang, the Chinese warlord who stole the statue from Lao Xing’s village, is in cahoots with Lord Kelvin. She dispatches her gang to stop Passepartout. Kelvin sends a bumbling sergeant from Scotland Yard.

The best-known version of this film is Michael Anderson’s interpretation of the classic novel by Jules Verne. Nominated for eight Oscars, it won the award for Best Picture in 1956. However, the fact that most of the cameos in the film also happened to be voting members of the Academy did not go unnoticed – especially to the film’s critics, who were many. Frank Coracci’s (“The Waterboy,” “The Wedding Singer”) updated version, which boasts cameos by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rob Schneider, Owen and Luke Wilson, Kathy Bates and Macy Gray, to name just a few, may well be hoping for a similar fate. Coracci certainly spent enough money ($110 million), although he didn’t find a distributor (Walt Disney) until the last minute.