A Balloon Without Enough Air

Read Time:2 Minute, 13 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Year Released: 2004
Runtime: 2h 0m
Director(s): Frank Coraci
Writer(s): Jules Verne (novel "Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours"), David N. Titcher (screenplay), David Benullo (screenplay)
Cast: Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Cécile de France, Jim Broadbent, Karen Mok
Where To Watch: Streaming on Disney+ or for purchase on most Video on Demand platforms

The subject of many television and film adaptations, this Jules Verne classic was more of a project to give Jackie Chan another film in front of American audiences. While Steve Coogan was also starring, he became almost a side note to Chan.

Originally the film had been started as a Warner Brothers project with Brendan Fraser starring in the film to capitalize on his success of THE MUMMY. After several rewrites and bouncing around, the film eventually landed with Disney for distribution. It was one of the most costly films made without having a distributor lined up.

The biggest takeaway for me was that the film felt completely unnecessary, not so much that it was a terrible movie, but one cliche after another. The over-the-top budget felt misused, and while the effects were occasionally fun, it suffered from a script that didn’t seem to know what to do with its source material.

One of the surprises I had during this was the supporting cast that seemingly had no end. While the cast listed above was impressive enough on its own, there were also scenes with Richard Branson, Macy Gray, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maggie Q, Daniel Wu, Rob Schneider, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, John Keogh, John Cleese, Will Forte, Tony Ho and more resulting in a nonstop attempt to make sure you didn’t miss any appearances.

It felt like they cast Cécile de France (who has been in several projects I enjoyed) after Alicia Silverstone turned down the role. I have nothing to back this up with other than that she regularly looked like Silverstone in the film. I know that Brendan Fraiser and Silverstone had worked together in the past, so maybe this was just one of those casting choices that kind of hung around and then never evolved from there.

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