Review: The Tuxedo

If the EPA is ill-equipped to protect our drinking water from deer piss and biological attacks, neither is the film’s fictional CSA Corporation

The Tuxedo
Photo: DreamWorks Pictures

If the EPA is ill-equipped to protect our nation’s drinking water from deer piss and biological attacks, neither is The Tuxedo’s fictional CSA Corporation. While Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is culturing the company’s bacteria, taxi driver Jimmy Tong (Jackie Chan) is trying to muster the balls to ask his age-and-race-appropriate love interest out on a date. Jimmy’s mad skills behind the wheel land him work with super-fly white guy Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs), a CSA operative who’s nearly blown to pieces by effete British water baron Diedrich Banning (Ritchie Coster). It’s only a matter of time then before Jimmy dons his white master’s monkey suit, kills James Brown, parties like it’s 1999 and saves the world from infectious water bugs. Sadder than Hollywood’s inability to give Chan a proper outlet for his talents (let alone a white love interest) is the actor’s own self-degradation. Tuxedo is custom-made to showcase Chan’s many tricks of hand and foot, and as such it may appeal to fans of his grueling Rush Hour comedies. Here, Love Hewitt dutifully takes over from Chris Tucker as master of Chan’s yellow Uncle Tom.

Score: 
 Cast: Jackie Chan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jason Isaacs, Ritchie Coster, Debi Mazar, Boyd Banks, James Brown, Mia Cottet, Daniel Kash, Larissa Laskin  Director: Kevin Donovan  Screenwriter: Michael Leeson, Michael J. Wilson  Distributor: DreamWorks Pictures  Running Time: 99 min  Rating: PG-13  Year: 2002  Buy: Video, Soundtrack

Ed Gonzalez

Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

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