Around the World in 80 Days
Rating: Three Stars
Starring: Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Cecile de France, Ewen Bremmer, Jim Broadbent. Written by David Titcher and David Benullo & David Goldstein. Directed by Frank Coraci. Rated PG for action violence, some crude humor and mild language.

By AUSTIN O’CONNOR
Sun Staff
It pretty much goes without saying that a remake of Around the World in 80 Days, the classic Jules Verne tale that won the Best Picture Oscar in its previous big-screen incarnation back in 1957, isn’t really necessary.
But that doesn’t mean that the new version isn’t any fun. Reinvented with Jackie Chan at its center, the latest Around the World in 80 Days delivers a pleasing mix of martial arts and madcap comedy, with a string of big-name cameos thrown in for good measure.
Chan plays a Chinese bank robber named Lau Xing who stumbles into a French alias, Passepartout, and a job as valet to inventor Phileas Fogg when he eludes the British police after breaking into the Bank of London in the film’s opening sequence.
Lau’s motives for robbing the bank are revealed later in the movie, as are his motives for joining up with the wildly daffy Fogg (Steve Coogan) in a quest to circle the globe in 80 days or less. The trip is a result of a bet between Fogg and Lord Kelvin, the haughty head of the Royal Academy of Science, played to prickly perfection by Jim Broadbent.
The notion that circling the globe in less than two and a half months would be difficult helps give a nice nostalgic quality to the movie, which is set at the turn of the 20th century and remembers a time when travel outside horse-and-buggy distance was as exotic as it was dangerous. There’s nostalgia, too, in the way the A-List thespians signed on for cameos — the original was one of the first to boast a truly all-star cast, with big stars in small cameos, and the new version pays homage.
Among those who show up in bit parts along the way are Rob Schneider, John Cleese, Kathy Bates and Owen and Luke Wilson, perfectly cast as a couple of crazy, real-life brothers working on a flying machine. But none of their cameos compares to the one pulled off by a certain governor of California.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appears to be wearing Diana Ross’ hair, shows up as a randy Turkish prince who tries to steal Fogg’s lady (Cecile de France). The Gov may not look very dignified, but he seems to be having lots of fun.
So, too, do Coogan and Chan. The martial arts star sparks the same kind of comic chemistry with the British actor that he did with Owen Wilson back in Shanghai Noon. Coogan, best known for his role in indie hit 24 Hour Party People, has one of the most expressive faces of any actor working today, and the unique ability to convey a range of emotions just by the different ways he arches his eyebrows.
The emotions most often conveyed toward Chan’s Passepartout are exasperation, at the predicaments in which the valet finds himself, and wonder, at the way he finds an escape route. The fight and chase sequences are up to Chan’s standards, but his accent is still hard to decipher, and it sometimes breaks the movie’s flow.
The film piles action sequence after action sequence, but director Frank Coraci (The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy) knows what he has, and so he never strays far from comedy. The result is a rarity: a fun, family-friendly film that isn’t animated. Unless you count Jackie, that is.
Austin O’Connor’s e-mail address is aoconnor@lowellsun.com.