Truly Dreadful Film

Excellent but underrated film

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Having previously watched The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze and the Jackie Chan version, I watched this Best Picture Oscar winner recently on a plane from Korean Air. It's very long with some amusing scenes from comic Cantinflas. David Niven is his charming British self and Shirley MacLaine does adequately well in only her third film role. There are lots of Star cameos of which the most disappointing was from Buster Keaton who for some reason doesn't do any stunts with Cantinflas when the latter runs on the running train. Modern film audiences may get bored with the Edward R. Murrow intro which explains the history of some of the original book's premise and shows some early film versions of fantastic air travel stories (like A Trip to the Moon) though I was interested in that segment. Overall, Around the World in Eighty Days was pretty enjoyable if maybe overlong for its own good.

Everyone enjoys taking a cheap shot at the Academy Awards, and this movie offers a great chance to do just that - Around the World in Eighty Days won Best Picture, while in the same year John Ford's The Searchers, one of the most iconic classics in the history of American cinema, didn't receive a single nomination.Around the World is three hours long, and feels like it. Every few minutes the movie stops to gawk at its exotic locations and smugly chuckle at its endless celebrity cameos ("Look, isn't it funny that the saloon pianist is Frank Sinatra?"). It has certainly aged badly. I remember enjoying it as a kid thirty years ago; rewatching it recently, I was surprised by how overlong it feels. I had a similar reaction to another on-the-road adventure/comedy of the same era, The Great Race, except the latter is propelled even today by Jack Lemmon's villainous glee as Professor Fate and by the sight of the adorable Natalie Wood in her lingerie. Around the World features also-adorable Shirley MacLaine - but, distractingly, she is unlikely cast as an Indian princess.Overall, though, this Jules Verne adaptation isn't a bad movie - a mildly entertaining travelogue with luscious vistas and a tone-perfect David Niven as a British gentleman so prim and fastidious that, if you tossed a couple of eggs in his luggage, two minutes later he would produce from it still immaculate clothes and a perfectly cooked omelet on a silver platter. In fact, Around the World is at its best when it focuses on Niven's Phileas Fogg dryly dealing with annoyances, obstacles and threats, and at its worst when it pauses to showcase the physical skills of co-star Cantinflas as Passepartout - so we have a dancing number, a bullfighting number, a circus number, and so on.The result is drawn-out; we complain that Peter Jackson added at least a whole hour of bloat in each Hobbit movie, but Hollywood was already doing that sixty years ago.6/10

This was movie making at it's best. Unlike the movies of today. Fine Acting, Photography, Costumes, Filming, Script and especially the who's who in the movie world doing their cameos. In my view the finest performance came from Robert Newton, who in my view stole the picture. It was reminiscent of his performance as Long John Silver in Treasure Island. Just as devious. Young children of today enjoy this version, even though they have been brought up on the Jackie Chan version, which is far inferior. David Niven himself stated that this was his favorite film and i can see why. I would also imagine that the participants all had a great time.A true masterpiece.

From the Jules Verne book, Englishman Phileas Fogg (David Niven) accepts a bet from his fellow Reform Club members to travel around the world in 80 days putting up £20k. Passepartout (Cantinflas) comes looking for a job and becomes his valet for the trip. The Bank of England has been robbed of £55k. Inspector Fix (Robert Newton) believes that Fogg had stolen the money and follows him in pursuit. It's a wild ride across the globe. On the way, they rescue Indian Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine) who joins them on their quest.Without a doubt, this is a grand movie with lots of footage from all around the world. It was probably quite an eye opener for its time. With the exception of these exotic footage, the movie is a slow, prodding, unfunny affair. The trip is monotonous. A lot of it is wild, some are insane while others border on racist. I guess people actually believed that ostriches pulled carts in HongKong back in the day. However one must admire the daring it took to make such an impossible film.