''The Tuxedo'' is a 2002 American science fiction

action comedy film Action comedy is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy. The genre is most prevalent in film with action comedy films, though several TV series fit this genre. Film The action comedy film is a film genre that combines aspects of actio ...

directed by Kevin Donovan and starring

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...

and

Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Love Hewitt (born February 21, 1979) is an American actress and singer. Hewitt began her career as a child actress and singer, appearing in national television commercials before joining the cast of the Disney Channel series ''Kids I ...

. It is a spy

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...

that involves a special

tuxedo Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element fo ...

that grants its wearer special abilities. It also involves a corporate terrorist, threatening to poison the United States' fresh water supply with bacteria that spills

electrolyte An electrolyte is a medium containing ions that is electrically conducting through the movement of those ions, but not conducting electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water. Upon dis ...

s into the blood and totally dehydrates the host. The film received negative reviews from

critics A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governme ...

upon release and earned a total worldwide box office gross of $104.4 million.

Plot

James "Jimmy" Tong is a taxi driver notorious for his speed and ability to get his customers anywhere in the least amount of time. His reputation lands him a job as the personal

chauffeur A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine. Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to speciali ...

of the mysterious but wealthy Clark Devlin. Jimmy does not really know what his new boss' job is, but Devlin's friendly nature, imperturbable demeanor, and willingness to offer Jimmy advice wins Jimmy over and the two become friends. What Jimmy does not realize is that Devlin is a secret

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

and undercover government agent, and when an attempt to kill Devlin with a car bombing sends him into a coma, Jimmy ends up with Devlin's recent case notes and a special watch that controls Devlin's rather unusual tuxedo. The tuxedo is a gadget capable of granting its wearer special abilities (including

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quanti ...

, the ability to dance, and various

acrobatics Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro ...

) which Jimmy must use to stop the criminal organization responsible for Devlin's attempted murder. The group is a terrorist organization disguised as a corporation named Banning Corporation and is headed by the notorious and ruthless Dietrich Banning. Its goal is to take over the global drinking water supply, starting with the poisoning of major US reservoirs by means of genetically modified

water strider The Gerridae are a family of insects in the order Hemiptera, commonly known as water striders, water skeeters, water scooters, water bugs, pond skaters, water skippers, or water skimmers. Consistent with the classification of the Gerridae as tr ...

insects. These water striders have bacteria that can spread from person to person, causing severe dehydration. By pure chance, Jimmy is joined by a genius scientist with aspirations of field work, Delilah "Del" Blaine. Blaine is completely new to field work and is delighted to be on assignment with Devlin, only to be very confused by Jimmy as he impersonates Devlin, relying on the tuxedo's special abilities to compensate for his lack of skill and training. At first, Blaine thinks Jimmy is weird and annoying, and then a fraud when Jimmy's impersonation is finally exposed. She confiscates his borrowed tuxedo and attempts to stop the evil Dietrich Banning on her own by feigning a desire to become a turncoat for Banning Corporation. Meanwhile, Jimmy is ready to give up and go back to his life as a taxi driver, but while packing his belongings he discovers that Devlin had ordered a second suit for Jimmy himself, believing that Jimmy could also be a great agent. Using his new suit, Jimmy defeats the

villain A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...

, Banning, by putting a cigarette in Blaine's mouth. Banning's tuxedo automatically forces him to pull out a lighter and light her cigarette. While Blaine is (comically) puffing on the lit cigarette, Jimmy begins to punch Banning. During the fight, Jimmy throws a glass containing the queen of the water striders into Banning's mouth. He is then infected with bacteria from the water strider. The other remaining water striders attack Banning and he then dies instantaneously. As compensation for his role in bringing down Banning, the organization uses its resources to orchestrate an operation so that Jimmy can finally meet his dream girl. However, confused by Blaine's and the now-recovered Devlin's conflicting instructions on how to act Jimmy succeeds only in alarming the girl into threatening to mace him, resulting in the operation being aborted. Consoling Jimmy afterwards, Blaine admits feeling sad that no one had ever tried to do for her what Jimmy had just done, and Jimmy tells Blaine that she has to change and be more accommodating if she ever wants to have a boyfriend. Feeling a tentative attraction for each other, they walk away to buy coffee together.

Cast

as James "Jimmy" Tong / Clark Devlin *

as CSA Agent Delilah "Del" Blaine *

Jason Isaacs Jason Isaacs (born 6 June 1963) is an English actor. Isaac's film roles include Col. Tavington in '' The Patriot'' (2000), Michael D. Steele in '' Black Hawk Down'' (2001), Lucius Malfoy in the ''Harry Potter'' film series (2002–2011), C ...

as CSA Agent Clark Devlin / Brad Dillford (Inspired by

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

) *

Debi Mazar Deborah Anne Mazar Corcos (; born August 13, 1964) is an American actress and television personality, known for playing sharp-tongued women. She began her career with supporting roles in ''Goodfellas'' (1990), ''Little Man Tate'' (1991) and ''Si ...

as CSA Agent Steena *

Ritchie Coster Ritchie Coster (born 1 July 1967) is an English actor. He is best known for playing the roles of Dietrich Banning in ''The Tuxedo'' (2002), the Chechen in ''The Dark Knight'' (2008), Elias Kassar in '' Blackhat'' (2015), Mayor Austin Chessani on ...

as Dietrich Banning *

Peter Stormare Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm (born August 27, 1953), better known as Peter Stormare (), is a Swedish actor who holds both Swedish and American citizenship. He played Gaear Grimsrud in the film '' Fargo'' (1996) and John Abruzzi in the television ser ...

as Dr. Simms * Mia Cottet as Cheryl *

Romany Malco Romany relates or may refer to: *The Romani people or Romany people, also known as Gypsies *Romani language or Romany language, the language of the Romani people *"Romany", the pseudonym of a broadcaster and writer of Romani descent, George Bramwel ...

as Mitch *

Daniel Kash Daniel Joshua Kash (born April 25, 1959) is a Canadian actor and film director. Life and career Kash was born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Canadian opera singer Maureen Forrester and Toronto-born violinist and conductor Eugene Kash (May 1, 1 ...

as Rogers * Jody Racicot as Kells *

Boyd Banks Boyd Banks (born April 16, 1964) is a Canadian stand-up comedian and actor. Background He was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and started in the entertainment industry at 17 when he won a contest for Best Stand Up Comedian in Edmonton, Albert ...

as Vic *

Bob Balaban Robert Elmer Balaban (born August 16, 1945) is an American actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for ''Gosford Park'' (2001), in which he also appeared. Balab ...

as CSA Director Winton Chalmers (''uncredited'') *

Christian Potenza Christian Potenza (born December 23, 1972) is a Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known for voicing Jude Lizowski on ''6teen'' and Chris McLean in the ''Total Drama'' franchise. Career He has been on television since 1997, when he first ...

as CSA Agent Joel * Scott Wickware as CSA Agent Wallace * Karen Glave as CSA Agent Randa * Scott Yaphe as CSA Agent Gabe * Jordan Madley as Holly *

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...

as himself * Colin Mochrie as Gallery Owner *

Noah Danby Noah Dalton Danby (born April 24, 1974) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for portraying Connor King in the series ''Painkiller Jane''. Early life Danby was born in Guelph, Ontario, the son of painter Ken Danby. Personal life Danby became e ...

as Bike Messenger * Kim Roberts as ER Nurse

Production

Jackie Chan was unsure about the project adding special effects together with stunts, but was interested to work with DreamWorks for the chance to meet Steven Spielberg. Chan found the American approach to stunts and safety restrictive and wanted to repeat a jump but was not allowed. "American films are different -- it drives me crazy," said Chan. On her first day of stunts, Jennifer Love Hewitt suffered a broken finger after being struck by one of the stunt men. During filming in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Chan and Love Hewitt appeared on an on-set webcam and interacted with fans. Chan worked on ''The Tuxedo'' in between shooting ''

The Medallion ''The Medallion'' () is a 2003 action comedy film directed by Hong Kong film director Gordon Chan in his first English-language film, who also wrote the screenplay with Bey Logan, Paul Wheeler, Bennett Joshua Davlin and Alfred Cheung Who also ...

'', which started before, and completed shooting later.

Soundtrack

After an initial score by

Christophe Beck Jean-Christophe Beck (born November 30, 1972) is a Canadian television and film score composer and conductor. He is a brother of pianist Chilly Gonzales. He is best known for his collaborations with Disney and its subsidiaries, which include comp ...

John Debney John Cardon Debney (born August 18, 1956) is an American composer and conductor of film, television, and video game scores. His work encompasses a variety of mediums and genres including comedy, horror, thriller, and action-adventure. He is a ...

was brought in to rescore the film (incorporating Beck's thematic material). Both composers ultimately had cues included in the final version.

Varèse Sarabande Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, owned by Concord Music Group and distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums, as well as newer r ...

released a soundtrack album on October 1, 2002, including different cues written by the composers for the same scenes. Cues by Debney are in italics, cues by Beck in bold. # ''Jimmy's Tux (2:50)'' # ''Skateboard Chase (2:00)'' # ''Mad Bike Messenger (1:04)'' # ''Jimmy's Dream (:48)'' # Main Title - "The Tuxedo" (3:01) # First Mission (2:54) # Swallow The Queen (2:25) # Demolition (1:20) # ''Putting on Tux (1:59)'' # ''Demolition Program (1:02)'' # ''Rope Fight (2:58)'' # Rope Fight (2:14) # Superhuman (1:39) # Walter Strider (1:21) # High Noon (:49) # ''Banning Opens The Pods (2:29)'' # ''Banning Swallows Queen (:49)'' # ''Jimmy Saves Blaine (1:50)'' # Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine) -

(3:19)

Reception

Box office

On a reported budget of $60 million, the film grossed $50.5 million in the United States. In its opening weekend the film grossed $15 million from 3,022 theaters. The film's total worldwide gross is $104.4 million.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 21% based on 140 reviews and an average rating of 4.33/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Chan is as charming as ever, but his talents are squandered by special effects and bad writing." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 30 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' commented that "The movie is silly beyond comprehension, and even if it weren't silly, it would still be beyond comprehension" but does comment that the film has its good moments. He gave the film one and a half stars out of four. Robert Koehler of ''

Variety magazine ''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based ...

'' says that the film's central problem is the mix of Chan's actual stunts and effects, which plays against Chan's whole career and hard-core commitment to doing all of his own body-defying stunts. He notes that Hewitt "has displayed a Chan-like sweetness herself in past roles" and is disappointed that her character is "a haggling, high-strung shrew who’s instantly repellent" rather than an amusing sidekick as Chan has had in other Hollywood films. Koehler also criticizes the "pallid direction", and "virtually incomprehensible plot line". American film critic

Wheeler Winston Dixon Wheeler Winston Dixon (born March 12, 1950) is an American filmmaker and scholar. He is an expert on film history, theory and criticism.Bill Goodykoontz, December 23, 2012, USA TodayDefining Tarantino Accessed Aug. 25, 2013, Quote = "...long, invo ...

described the trademark action comedy as having an "unlikely pairing" of Jennifer Love Hewitt with Chan, and noted that Chan's doing his own stunts, even in his middle age, added a "welcome touch of verisimilitude to the endless succession of doubles who normally populate such films."

, 2003, Wallflower Press, London and New York, ''Visions of the Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema'', retrieved November 28, 2014, (paperback) (hardcover), see page 18, lines 15–20

Novelization

A novelization of the film was released by publisher

Price Stern Sloan Price Stern Sloan (originally known as Price/Stern/Sloan) or PSS! was a publisher (now an imprint of the Penguin Group) that was founded in Los Angeles in the early 1960s to publish the Mad Libs that Roger Price and Leonard Stern had concocted ...

adapted by Ellen Weiss.

References

External links

Dreamworks SKG page
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tuxedo, The 2002 films 2002 action comedy films 2002 comedy films 2002 directorial debut films 2002 martial arts films 2000s martial arts comedy films 2000s spy comedy films American action comedy films American martial arts comedy films DreamWorks Pictures films Films about terrorism Films produced by John H. Williams Films scored by Christophe Beck Films scored by John Debney Films shot in Toronto Films with screenplays by Matt Manfredi Films with screenplays by Michael J. Wilson Films with screenplays by Phil Hay (screenwriter) Parody films based on James Bond films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films