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The Tuxedo | 134829__the_tuxedo_l
TROUBLED WATERS Chan (left) and Hewitt take ''Tuxedo'''s high road
The Tuxedo: George Kraychyk

As Jimmy Tong, a bumbling New York shlub who chauffeurs supersuave Bondian spy Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs), Jackie Chan finally gets the opportunity to play against type. ''He's bad with women,'' laughs Kevin Donovan, a commercial director making his feature debut with this $60 million action comedy. ''And, ironically, he's a very poor fighter. It's a nice counterpoint when you see Jackie running from someone else.'' But a Chan movie minus martial arts is kind of like a De Niro movie without the Method. So Tong soon finds himself thrown into Devlin's latest mission, armed with nothing but the titular gadget-filled piece of formalwear.

Jennifer Love Hewitt plays a water expert suddenly paired with Tong to bring down an executive (''As the World Turns''' Ritchie Coster) attempting to sabotage a vast aqua reserve. ''[Jackie and Jennifer] are both fish out of water pretending to know everything when each of them knows hardly anything,'' says Donovan. Apparently, that includes how to bust a move: When Tong accidentally incapacitates funk legend James Brown before a gig, he's forced to warble ''...Sex Machine'' in front of a slack-jawed audience. ''Jackie has a long recording history in Asia, and he really can sing,'' the director says. ''The hard part for him was getting coordinated. He got a real crash course in dancing.''

THE LOWDOWN Can Chan re-create the same crackerjack camaraderie he's mastered with Chris Tucker and Owen Wilson with, of all people, Jennifer Love Hewitt?


Posted Aug 20, 2002 | Order Article Reprints