Cecile De France, left to right, Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan star in a scene from the motion picture "Around the World in 80 Days." (Gannett News Service, David Appleby/Walt Disney Pictures) Around the World in 80 Days Starring: Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Cecile De France, Jimn Broadbent. Director: Frank Coraci. Rated PG: Action violence, some crude humor, mild language. Running time: 120 minutes. view the trailer | official website An eccentric London inventor, Phileas Fogg, has come up with the secrets to flight, electricity, and even roller-blades, but the world has dismissed him as a crackpot. Desperate to be taken seriously, Fogg makes an outlandish bet with Lord Kelvin, the head of the Royal Academy of Science: to circumnavigate the globe in no more than 80 days! With his two sidekicks--Passepartout and femme fatale Monique--Fogg is headed on a frantic, heart-pounding round-the-world race that takes our heroes to the world's most exotic places by land, sea, and air.

Chan takes predictable route 'Around the World'

by Jack Garner, Gannett News Service

Taking his cue from such increasingly family-friendly kung-fu hits as "Shanghai Noon" and "The Medallion," Jackie Chan now stars in a full-fledged, PG-rated family film, a remake of "Around the World in 80 Days."

Although based on the same Jules Verne novel as the much more elaborate Oscar-winning film of 1956, this new movie is much more Jackie than Jules. It is released by the Disney Studios, which fits since it also recalls such old school live-action Disney fare as "The Absent-Minded Professor" and the "Son of Flubber."

Chan stars as Lau Xing, a Chinese adventurer who robs the Bank of England, but strictly to retrieve a jade Buddha originally stolen from his home village back in China. While fleeing the police, he bumps into Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan), an inventor and scientist whose futuristic ideas have sparked laughter and derision from his peers.

Fogg's characterization is the link to "The Absent-Minded Professor" and its ilk.

Fogg needs a new valet, and Lau needs an escape plan. So Lau becomes Passepartout, Fogg's new valet and all-round assistant. Simultaneously, Fogg is challenged by England's Royal Academy of Science to back up his claim that a person can circle the globe in 80 days. Because Lau needs to get quickly to China, he urges his boss to accept the challenge.

And the race is on, but not before a lovely young French artist (Cecile De France) also joins the traveling party (for no discernable reason other than to improve the already spectacular globetrotting scenery).

Lau is pursued not only by cops but also by Chinese bandits, who provide ample opportunity for trademark Chan kung fu fighting and a few outlandish jumps, twists and flips. The period setting, a segment in the Old West and the overall tone make "Around the World" a kissin' kin of Chan's "Shanghai" films, embellished with Victorian, neofuturistic props from "Wild, Wild West."

Like the more famous "Around the World" film, this includes myriad cameos, including a bizarre sequence with the current governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who plays a Turkish prince with an Austrian accent. Generally, though, such cameos as Owen and Luke Wilson and John Cleese can't touch the Shirley MacLaines, Buster Keatons and Peter Lorres of the '56 film.

If you've remained a Chan fan despite the action hero's obvious concessions to age and you've enjoyed his recent family-style films, "Around the World in 80 Days" will entertain you. Kids also will have fun if they can handle the two-hour-plus running time. Most others, however, might want to make other travel plans.