Taxxi 3

For all you intelektuwal critics: this movie is not meant to be the subject of a 100+ pages paper, it is meant to be fun, fun, fun. And oh yes, the Taxi-series delivers again. Excellent music, supercool acting jobs all around, offbeat humor and absolutely no twelve-year-olds doing magic stuff... really, what more do you want?

Taxi 3 : Here is a film that bears well its name : Yes absolutely it is the THIRD sequel of the same track race between the foreign Wicked bandits and the dumb French police helped by the turbo-charged taxi driver. After 2 attempts, you might expect a bit of "ageing" and maturation of this eye-catching concept, well except the the fun credits at the beginning and the surprise appearance of Mr Stallon himself, there is nothing really new :

• a simplistic story-line - a demagogue & super-caricatural description of the French police - a crude humor - not so impressive track race - action scenes with barely no action - pityful dialogues - actors who are never really exploited - no surprise happy ending

Apparently Mr Besson wanted to make a comedy that does not take itself seriously : well if you are not too hard to please concerning the subtlety of the humor you might get a satisfaction but it's not enough to save this farce because the supposed action scenes are nothing more than boring and uninspired. Furthermore, the grotesque is too serious not to be taken seriously. So you are left with the story, but it the carbon copy of the precedents except that the Chinese have replaced the Japanese and the Germans as the shrewd bandits...

It's a pity that Mr Besson the producer/writer does not have the same standard of excellence as Mr Besson the director. This film could have been a funny piece of popular entertainment but it was too botched up to live up to this title.

To sum up : a ludicrous popular comedy made of crude gags + no action action scenes in the wake of the worn out Taxi series. (4 out of 10)

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in his filmography in order, I come to his cameo in Taxi 3.

Plot In A Paragraph: A gang of thieves calling themselves the Santa Claus Gang are running riot, and the police are nowhere near catching them. Police Captain Gilbert is distracted by a Chinese reporter writing a story on his squad, detective Emilien's wife has just announced that she's pregnant, and taxi driver Daniel is in the midst of a relationship crisis. After a string of mistakes in which the thieves outsmart the police several times with a reporter there to report on it all, Daniel steps in to help out.

The tile sequence is fun, as its basically a rip off various James Bond titles

Director Gerard Krawczyk had directed writer Luc Besson's last movie 'Wasabi' starring Jean Reno. Funnily enough, in the street market, you can clearly see behind Émilien in at least two shots a poster for 'Wasabi'

Stallone briefly pops up for a taxi ride in the first couple of mins.

Yes, it is funny but I am getting a little tired of watching the same thing the third time around. I like the first one because it was fresh and different... But, Taxi 3 is just a copy of the previous 2 with a little new twist... I hope there will be no Taxi 4 coming out any time soon...

I don't think you HAVE to be a TAXI fan to like the movie. It is at least as entertaining as the first two POLICE ACADEMY movies or the third VACATION movie, and while it is not a great work it is fun to watch despite the fact that the plot is thin because the jokes work. It is certainly funnier than TORRENTE 2, and that was a blockbuster over here. Perhaps the difference is that the humour in TAXI 3 is more subtle... or maybe just not so raunchy...

Also, the short appearance by SLY is a great introduction for those who are not familiar with the characters, and he does his part well.

Of course, TRANSPORTER was a much better film (with better chase scenes through the same Marseille streets) but then that was a thriller rather than light comedy.