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The venerable New York Times reviews the new ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ and deems that it is really a silent comedy with spoken subtitles:

What distinguishes this rendition from the nearly three-hour 1956 version, which won the Oscar for best picture, is the presence of that coiled human whirlwind, Jackie Chan, [a]s Passepartout, the loyal valet to the fanatical British inventor Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan). […] The whiz-bang set pieces, in which Mr. Chan fends off teams of assailants in exotic locales, are the movie’s dizzying high points. Mr. Chan’s movies have always included a high quotient of physical comedy. And here he sheds the last superficial trappings of action-adventure heroism to become a poker-faced clown and Harold Lloyd-like escape artist who is repeatedly roughed up but remains unruffled.

Gadgetry from the fanatical British inventor is also of note:

The movie’s witty Rube Goldberg-worthy contraptions remind us that until today’s high-tech environment, machines used to be funny. It’s refreshing and perhaps even useful to see a movie that shows how susceptible to breakdown they really are. The most wonderfully far-fetched gadget is the airplane Fogg improvises from plans handed him by the Wright Brothers (Luke and Owen Wilson) and builds out of a dismantled ship. The device, which swoops uncertainly through the sky, suggests a bicycle borne aloft on giant butterfly wings.

Although SCP has a high quotient of scepticism—having seen the trailers for this comédie spectaculaire and having a prudish disdain for humorous ornithopters—we are fans of Mr. Jackie Chan. We shall perhaps go see this film, enjoy Mr. Chan’s antics, and bemoan the lack of Todd-AO. :::sigh:::