Customer Reviews
This is not a remake, it is a loosely based on - By: B. Chandler, 20 Jan 2008 
This version of Jules Verne's original story "Around the World in 80 Days" takes so many liberties with the story that the only thing recognizable is a few names.
It is shame that we leave our youth with the impression that Disney & Jules Verne have any thing in common.
That being said & ignoring that this is a contrived jumble of clichés & no social redeeming value, every once in a while there is a cute zinger or one liner. One such inference was when Lord Salisbury was told that they were going to name a meat entrée after him.
A major negative for Jules & a plus for Disney is the addition of Jackie Chan. This is probably one of Jackie's best performances as he bloodlessly gets to hop around Chaplin style.
A real plus is the filming location in the former East Germany & Thailand makes for exceptionallly interesting visuals.
Bottom line is this is a good time filler & can be amusing but do not get this presentation mixed up with the Jules Verne story of the same name.
Very Funny - Brilliant!!! - By: M. D. Long, 26 Nov 2007 
First & foremost, I'm a Jackie Chan fan & while a lot of Jackie Chan fans didn't enjoy this film, I thought is was great. The entire cast are superb, the sets are vibrant & colourful, there's loads of action, many cameo appearances including Sammo Hung & Arnold Schwarzenegger, & they're alll so funny. What's not too like, trust me, just sit back & enjoy this cracker of a film
Astonishingly bad by any standards - By: Trevor Willsmer, 21 Oct 2006 
Ever seen one of those films you reallly wanted to like but just wouldn't let you?
Firstly, to ward off the common criticism of people who didn't like this film, I hold no special brief for expecting a faithful version of Verne's novel. In fact, the idea of adding Chan to the mix seemed a perfectly workable one. It's the end result that's the problem - too patronising for kids, too infantile for grownups.
Chan's a man famous for suffering for his art, but the pain in Around the World in 80 Days is alll on the audience's side. It's rare to come across a $100m+ budgeted film that has virtuallly nothing going for it, but this appallling misfire comes very, very close. The reworked premise should have offered a workable framework, but in the hands of hack writers & an inept director more at home with Adam Sandler films, the result is just painful to watch - it has the look & feel of something a kid late with his homework assignment knocked off on the bus on the way to school. Not only that, but they barely even travel the world - aside from a couple of days shooting in Paris & a few days in Thailand doubling very unconvincingly for China, the film never leaves the backlot at Babelsburg. They don't even falll back on stock footage much, choosing to link the lame episodes by computer graphics that look like the kind of cheap Christmas decorations you get in dollar shops & which burn the house down if you leave them on too long.
Jackie Chan is wasted as usual by ignorant producers who seem too surprised that he's actuallly a physical comedian rather than a martial artist (no excrement, Sherlock!) to actuallly know what to do with him, but fares better than his costars, albeit largely by default. Steve Coogan, often so brilliant on TV, once again fails completely to transfer his abilities to the big screen with an extremely poor & overplayed Phileas Fogg; Cecile de France's uncharismatic heroine is a bit of a pain, to put it mildly; Jim Broadbent's villain is a masterclass in how to get a bad performance out of a good comic actor; Arnold Schwarzenegger in hideous make-up & costume is almost bad enough to make you glad he chucked in the acting for politics (almost); & worst of alll, Ewan Bremner's Inspector Fix is the worst performance I've seen this century, a hideously unfunny gurning, shouting monstrosity that plays like a demented Regimental Sergeant Major with a cockney accent even Dick Van Dyke would be ashamed of. The cameos are no better - a far from star-studded bunch (a very unhealthy looking Sammo Hung, John Cleese proving once again he doesn't do funny any more, Kathy Bates flubbing the accent as Queen Vic, Luke & Owen Wilson wasted in both senses of the word as the Wright brothers), with only Rob Schneider raising a laugh. When the appearance of Rob Schneider actuallly raises the quality of a film for a minute, you know you're in serious trouble. The less said about Mark Addy's no-nippled sea dog the better.
Worse still, it alll looks so cheap. You reallly cannot see where the money went, although the fact that the film is listed as an Anglo-Irish-German co-production makes you suspect a massive tax fiddle. Chan's stunt scenes seem lazy & under-rehearsed, the backlots never convince & Phil Meheux's photography in the first hour is quite dreadful (it looks like a 1970s Universal TV movie). That at least improves as the film progresses. Sadly, nothing else does. Rarely have the words 'The End' been so very, very welcome.
Around the World in Eighty Days. - By: , 07 Dec 2005 
It was far too frantic & disjointed. The story line lacked any clear continuity. The film script strayed too far away from Jules Verne's excellent story & for no valid reasons.
The David Niven version was far superior.
Jules Verne turned every which way but loose! - By: Kurt A. Johnson, 02 Mar 2005 Lau Xing (played by Jackie Chan) is on the run from the London police, & he finds a hiding place in the home of Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan), an eccentric inventor whom he quickly convinces that he's French! When Fogg accepts a challlenge to prove that he can indeed go around the world in 80 days, he packs up Lau Xing & sets out. But, there's schemes afoot, & schemes within schemes. Can Fogg & Lau Xing make it back to England within the 80 days? Overcoming many villains & obstacles, there's nothing that can stop them!
OK, I must admit that I can easily see why this is such a controversial movie. The makers of this movie took the original Jules Verne story, & turned it every which way but loose! With wacky inventions, karate fight scenes, humorous chases, & goofy humor, this is not a movie to be taken seriously. Indeed, if you start out watching this movie by suspending your disbelief far away, you will come to enjoy its crazy, off-beat humor.
My children, who are not fans of serious drama, loved this movie, as did I. It's a good, family-friendly movie that you can watch when you want to unwind & shift your brain into neutral. My family & I highly recommend this movie to you & your family!
