This film is less a modern interpretation of the Jules Verne classic and more a kid's adventure flick that bears scant regard for realism, historical fact or sense. It's not a very good children's film at that. It's a muddled story, trying too hard to mix in Oriental detail and tribal battles with the standard 'journey' template and any attempts at seriousness go out of the window in the first five minutes with the introduction of bizarre and fanciful machinery that looks like something out of a kid's fantasy novel. Special effects are generally poor and many of the supporting cast members give outlandish, over the top performances that I personally found repulsive. Jim Broadbent is a particular offender in this respect, but Ewen Bremner doesn't come off very well either. The script is below par too.

Steve Coogan isn't too bad as the foppish Fogg. He fails to make his character remotely likable, but I did find him believable in the part. Jackie Chan is the same lovable buffoon that we've seen in every Hollywood film in the past decade. Of course, he's the best thing in the film, garnering the few laughs on offer, but I did find the lack of action to be a bit insulting. There are only a couple of the sprawling, choreographed battles we've come to know and expect and the focus is elsewhere, on the nonsensical plot and the need to cram in as many different places as possible.

That leaves the cameos. There are many of them, taking place throughout the film at regular intervals, and they do give the movie a certain novelty value that works, for the first viewing at least. It's quite amazing how many different stars were lined up to appear. The best, of course, is Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his last screen appearance before he became a politician; he's genuinely funny, as usual, and they make great use of his larger-than-life persona. Other fun moments include an appearance from Richard Branson as a balloonist; Rob Schneider playing a befuddled tramp; Maggie Q in a one-scene fight; Sammo Hung, playing Wong Fei-Hung; Daniel Wu as a villain and Ken Lo as a henchman; John Cleese in a bit part as a policeman; the Wilson brothers, Luke and Owen, as the Wright brothers (an inspired bit of casting, that); Mark Addy, pretty poor as a steamer captain; finally, Kathy Bates, pretty convincing as Queen Victoria. Take away the cameos and Jackie and you have a bottom of the barrel production in every respect.

Lau Xing (Jackie Chan) steals the Jade Buddha from the Bank of England and escapes from the police. He finds shelter with inventor Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan) taking the name Passepartout. Lord Kelvin (Jim Broadbent) demands the Buddha's return from General Fang before supporting her in China. Kelvin laughs at Phileas and his ideas in the Royal Academy of Science. They bet Phileas traveling around the world in 80 days. Kelvin hires bumbling inspector Fix (Ewen Bremner) to stop them and then orders their arrest. In Paris, Moonique La Roche (Cécile De France) joins them.

I don't like the addition of the Chinese story although the fight in Paris is great fun. It distracts from the basic story which is the adventure of traveling the world. The movie diminishes the drama of the ticking clock. The best moment in the story is when they think they lost the race at the finish line. This movie makes it an after-thought. Lots of the movie makes no sense time wise although logic is not a necessity. Coogan and Chan could have chemistry but their characters take a long time to connect. I don't know who Cécile De France is but she was OK. Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance is horrible and he puts the movie on a downward trend that it never recovers from.

A decent movie. It means well, and is energetic, but it is also very silly and came across as forgettable. I must say it looks ravishing with colourful set designs and lavish-looking costumes. Steve Coogan does well as Phinias Fogg, Cecile De France is very charming and likable as his love interest and Jackie Chan proves what a talented versatile actor he is with a very entertaining rendition of Passepartout with very inventive stunts. Jim Broadbent is excellent as Lord Kelvin, and there are truly elaborate set pieces. While it was reasonably entertaining, what spoiled this movie? Well for one thing, the script was weak a vast majority of the time. And don't expect a faithful adaptation of Jules Verne's story, otherwise you are in for disappointment. There are similarities to the story and the 1956 film but the subplot about the Buddha statue was bordering on ridiculous. And there are some very silly moments, the accident prone police sergeant was very entertaining and Ewen Bremmer played him brilliantly. But I wasn't sure whether General Fang was a necessary character, but the silliest character for me was Prince Hapi played by Arnold Scharznegger. All in all, entertaining and fun on the most part, but it is unlikely to please everybody. 6/10 Bethany Cox