Reviewed 5 Nov 2002   If you weren't a Jackie Chan fan before The TUXEDO, there's a good chance this will convert you.   The temptation is to compare The TUXEDO to a serious action-thriller, but those of us who were already fans understood we were there just for the laughs, the great stunts, and the sometimes-strange bungles in the out-takes at the end.  We knew in advance that Jackie Chan movies are their own genre.
       James Brown makes an all-too-brief appearance, but it is almost made up for when Jimmy Tong (Jackie Chan) fills in for him at a singing engagement. The reason Jimmy has to do this is, well, too difficult to explain...  See, he (Jimmy ) is the absolute least likely fill-in for his injured boss, Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs) who is a top CIA-type spy, and Jimmy is trying his best to bluff his way through, and not let his boss down.  He is teamed up with a first-time-out CIA-type novice spy, Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt), who doesn't know he is not the real Devlin.  Together, they blunder and muddle their way through, or most of the way through, anyway, in pursuit of big-time water conspirators.  ...Yes, I said, 'water conspirators'...well, we can't have everything.
        Jennifer Love Hewitt is no stranger to comedy (Heartbreakers); I don't think The TUXEDO is the last time we will be seeing her in one of these roles.
       The question we all asked afterward, however, was, what was the significance of Director Donovan's opening scene, where we see a deer urinating in a stream?  Was he making a special environmental impact statement?  Is he a closet Discovery Channel documentary maker?  Did he just come across some unrelated film footage he thought too good to waste?  Whatever the intent, it was lost to the rest of humanity.  I can't wait for his next movie; what animal will he have performing which bodily function?  The mind boggles.
      Enduring Line or Phrase:  "You killed James Brown !"

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