Around the World in 80 Days

If any students out there are doing a book report on Jules Verne’s novel (an elegant armchair travelogue spiced with adventure and social satire), they’d better not use this movie, or they’ll flunk for sure. Verne takes an awful beating from director Frank Coraci and writers David N. Titcher, David Benullo and David Andrew Goldstein. Despite their limited experience, they know what Verne needs: for them to toss out most of the plot, add a chopsocky story lifted from Shanghai Knights, throw in shoddy production values (little of the $110 million budget shows onscreen), and make the pacing somehow both frantic and stagnant. Steve Coogan as the globetrotting Phileas Fogg and Jackie Chan as his servant seem to be in two different movies, both of them bad. Other actors add little, and it would be a kindness not to name them.