The eighth wonder of the world is Jackie Chan. The man can leap from tall buildings in a single bound, hop onto boats and over trains using automobiles, and fight adversaries with the grace and stability of a figure skater. But his formula has always been simple: less is more.

Jackie’s movies have varied from the well-written to the “what were they thinking?” type, but they’re all heart and morally sound. And that’s how he wins the day and the audience every time.

Jimmy Tong (Chan of the “Rush Hour” movies) is an infamously insane cab driver. He’s sought out for his driving skills by the secretary of secret agent Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs of “The Patriot”), and becomes Devlin’s chauffeur. A surprise attack leaves Devlin incapacitated, and he passes his duties of espionage to Jimmy. In order to become his boss’ replacement, Jimmy dons a special tuxedo, which literally allows him to fight like a superhero, sing and dance like James Brown, and do all the things a secret agent needs to do. He teams up with lab rat Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt of “Heartbreakers”) to save the world from water poisoning by bottled water magnate Diedrich Banning (Ritchie Coster of “15 Minutes”).

Before getting to the bright side of things, let’s point out what is wrong with the movie. It is one thing to come up with bad story ideas, but the screenplay itself comes out quite wretched. Michael J. Wilson (“Ice Age”) and Michael Leeson (“What Planet Are You From?”) are to blame for exposing Jackie Chan and company to such horrible dialogue. It’s so bad, I’m still trying to forget the lines Coster had to dish out as a bad guy; I can’t help but wonder if his bad acting was due to the bad lines.

Fortunately, the principal behind-the-camera crew picks up the mess and makes a good show of it. Kevin Donovan makes his feature film directorial debut, having filmed award-winning commercials for Pepsi, Little Caesars, and Miller Beer. To say his efforts have been competent says a lot, because to coordinate and work with Jackie Chan is quite a feat. And no feat flies smoothly without a production team consisting of Adam Schroeder (“The Truman Show”), John H. Williams (“Shrek”), and the husband-wife team of Walter F. Parkes and Laurie McDonald (the “Men in Black” films, “Gladiator,” “The Mask of Zorro”). Their crowd-pleasing expertise makes “The Tuxedo” about as close to a typical foreign Jackie Chan flick as you can get (if not for the safety control freaks that hinder Chan’s stunts in America).

Chan is charming as Jimmy, exuding a slightly naive personality from a pure heart. His character is written to care about his boss, his partner, James Brown (yes, the Godfather of Soul is in here too), saving the world, and through his performance, it shows. Hewitt does what she can in another underwritten role. For crying out loud, get this woman a proper starring role! She’s proven her worth on television (“The Audrey Hepburn Story”), but hasn’t been given a decent venue for her talents on film (“I Know What You Did Last Summer” anyone?).

An ordinary man with a heart of gold saves the day. That is the template of this and all other Jackie Chan movies before it. He’s as physically loopy and charismatically hilarious as ever, which is a guarantee of a good time every time. Jackie Chan fans won’t be disappointed in “The Tuxedo,” because it fits Chan in America like a glove.