Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
Oh, Jackie. I can’t even say, “how far you have fallen” because actually, this is a step up from The Tuxedo and The Medallion. I know you are getting up there, and that’s fine - you still have the moves and you still have that ineffable charm and sweet old-school comedy. I admit, it was smart to align yourself with a clever romantic lead like Steve Coogan for you to foil and lock horns with, someone articulate and cute and funny and hard for you to win over. Sure, why not remake a near-forgotten 1956 classic so you have a built-in appeal to sort of distract from your recent past? It all seems like a very good idea. But we had to wait 25 minutes for the first fight scene! To be fair, his fights are coming back around to being funny. Perhaps it’s because it’s a children’s film, but he had some joy back that he was missing the past couple of movies.
And, if you are 10 and under, it’s a great idea. It’s actually quite a lot of simple, pleasant fun, not insulting for adult, but not offering them any special layers for themselves, either. Walt Disney Pictures’ live-action studio has not been at the top of its game for some time, but in a way, this film could have been made at any high point in the studio’s career. If you read or see any biographies of Walt, you get a sense of a man who wanted to open up the wonders of the world, to excite imagination and curiosity, and evoke nostalgia. He wanted to take children to exotic and distant locales, show them all the interesting people and the latest technologies and to stimulate them with the potential of our world. He did all this, and made a quick buck or two in the process. His mission, easily forgotten in the din of a mall Disney Store, is fully alive in this film. This movie could easily have starred Kurt Russell as a freckle faced child or been shot in that desaturated grainy technicolor so many 1960’s Disney films were cursed with. I don’t mean that as a slight to these filmmakers, but the flavor of those old films is very present. You can taste the corniness, and if you are in the right frame of mind, you can enjoy it even at its most base.
Coogan is really actually delightful, a wonderful legacy replacement for David Niven - he should reprise all his roles in the inevitable remakes. He is stubborn, obsessive-compulsive, wildy ineffective, charming, cantankerous, and funny, and he actually goes to the bother to build and develop his character slowly and beautifully throughout the film. He is far better (and works harder) than the film as a whole, and rivals the amazing locations for sheer enjoyability. Jim Broadbent in hyper-camp mode, is having so much fun we wonder what movie he might be in, and could we see that one, please?
I was reminded of The Great Race (a similar concept of course, and 9 years younger) since I had actually seen that film, with unlimited resources and costume options, the whole farce has to be taken at face value. If you start questioning physics and logic you will miss the charming parts. I took my patient companion, hoping there would be cool transportation inventions for him to pick apart with his mind, but I should have learned better from my other engineer friend not to hope that such a presentation would be amusing to him. Your child companion, however, will not have an aerospace degree, and will probably love it. Take them and recall Walt’s dream for the children of tomorrow, and you will come out all right.
MPAA Rating PG
Release date 6/16/04
Time in minutes 120
Director Frank Coraci
Studio Walt Disney Pictures
