The Tuxedo (2002)
★★ — The Tuxedo (2002)
There's a version of The Tuxedo that works. A supersuit spy comedy built around Jackie Chan's physical genius, his gift for comic timing, his ability to turn almost any object into a prop and any space into a playground. That version sounds brilliant, actually. This version, unfortunately, is not that version.
What we get instead is slapstick spy nonsense held together with awkward CGI and a sci-fi premise that actively works against everything Chan does best. The whole conceit, a magic tuxedo that grants its wearer superhuman abilities, sounds like a fun riff on Bond gadgetry. In practice it just means a load of green-screen trickery substituting for the real stunts that made Chan famous. Parkour in loafers, dance-fighting villains, cartoon physics that owe more to a kids' Saturday morning show than to the jaw-dropping practical work of his peak years. It's the kind of film where you keep waiting for a corridor fight or a scaffolding chase that actually feels dangerous, and it never quite comes.
Chan himself is never the problem. That's what makes it genuinely frustrating rather than just bad. He's still charming, still committed, still bringing more energy than the material deserves. There are flashes of the old magic, particularly in the quieter, more inventive gags where his timing gets room to breathe. A moment here, a double-take there. You see the talent, you remember why you love him, and then the plot lurches back into its tired spy mechanics and you lose the thread again. He never phones it in. He simply doesn't have the material to work with.
Jennifer Love Hewitt is game but struggles with a role that asks her to play it dead straight against Chan's buffoonery without ever giving her anything sharp enough to land. The chemistry is fine, occasionally warm, but the script keeps letting them both down. The villains are entirely forgettable, the stakes feel negligible, and the bizarre premise about contaminated water supplies or some such thing just sort of sits there, neither thrilling nor funny enough to justify itself.
Compare it to Rush Hour, which crackled with genuine comic energy between two leads who genuinely seemed to enjoy each other, and where the action still felt grounded in Chan's real physicality. Or go further back to Rumble in the Bronx, rough around the edges as it is, and you remember what it feels like when the stunts carry actual risk. The Tuxedo strips that risk out entirely and replaces it with a magic suit, which is exactly the wrong trade.
It isn't unwatchable. There are a handful of laughs, Chan's floor routine gag raises a genuine smile, and if you catch it on a long-haul flight when you're half-asleep and the alternative is a tepid thriller you've already half-seen, it'll pass the time. But the bar for a Jackie Chan film shouldn't be "passable on a plane." The man is one of the most gifted physical performers who's ever lived, and too many of his Hollywood studio outings treated him as a brand to be packaged rather than a talent to be used properly. The Tuxedo is one of the worst offenders on that front. More Mr. Nanny than anything worth revisiting.
Two stars. Skip the tux. Watch the classics instead.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 2002 | Watched: 2025-09-15
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
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Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More with Jackie Chan: Hand of Death (1976) · Rumble in the Bronx (1995) · Skiptrace (2016) · Gorgeous (1999)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
