Very unfaithful adaptation of the Jules Verne novel, yet much more entertaining than the tedious and wildly overrated but relatively faithful David Niven version. The movie is breezy and enjoyable, with some fun fight scenes, although it is completely inconsequential.

I think it would help when watching this movie to have not read the book, because one cannot help but think that the extensive rewriting was not necessary. Passepartout's character could have been expanded for Jackie without so many other changes. Changing Phineas to a bumbling, goofy inventor was clearly done in an attempt to make the movie into another version of the buddy movie that has been Jackie's greatest friend in the U.S., but Coogan is unexceptional in the role and doesn't have a lot of chemistry with Jackie, so they really should have just done the character as written, which could have made for a much smarter movie.

In spite of plot holes and some silliness though, I enjoyed this, at least in that, watch-a-movie-on-TV-on-a-Saturday-morning way.

A decent movie. It means well, and is energetic, but it is also very silly and came across as forgettable. I must say it looks ravishing with colourful set designs and lavish-looking costumes. Steve Coogan does well as Phinias Fogg, Cecile De France is very charming and likable as his love interest and Jackie Chan proves what a talented versatile actor he is with a very entertaining rendition of Passepartout with very inventive stunts. Jim Broadbent is excellent as Lord Kelvin, and there are truly elaborate set pieces. While it was reasonably entertaining, what spoiled this movie? Well for one thing, the script was weak a vast majority of the time. And don't expect a faithful adaptation of Jules Verne's story, otherwise you are in for disappointment. There are similarities to the story and the 1956 film but the subplot about the Buddha statue was bordering on ridiculous. And there are some very silly moments, the accident prone police sergeant was very entertaining and Ewen Bremmer played him brilliantly. But I wasn't sure whether General Fang was a necessary character, but the silliest character for me was Prince Hapi played by Arnold Scharznegger. All in all, entertaining and fun on the most part, but it is unlikely to please everybody. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Lau Xing (Jackie Chan) steals the Jade Buddha from the Bank of England and escapes from the police. He finds shelter with inventor Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan) taking the name Passepartout. Lord Kelvin (Jim Broadbent) demands the Buddha's return from General Fang before supporting her in China. Kelvin laughs at Phileas and his ideas in the Royal Academy of Science. They bet Phileas traveling around the world in 80 days. Kelvin hires bumbling inspector Fix (Ewen Bremner) to stop them and then orders their arrest. In Paris, Moonique La Roche (Cécile De France) joins them.

I don't like the addition of the Chinese story although the fight in Paris is great fun. It distracts from the basic story which is the adventure of traveling the world. The movie diminishes the drama of the ticking clock. The best moment in the story is when they think they lost the race at the finish line. This movie makes it an after-thought. Lots of the movie makes no sense time wise although logic is not a necessity. Coogan and Chan could have chemistry but their characters take a long time to connect. I don't know who Cécile De France is but she was OK. Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance is horrible and he puts the movie on a downward trend that it never recovers from.