Táxi

A foul-mouthed cabbie called Belle (a humorous Queen Latifa) join forces with a botcher , bungler cop called Andy (a newcomer Jimmy Fallon). She's the fastest taxi-woman with a perfect boyfriend (Henry Simmons). He's a complete inept behind the car and under skirts his alcoholic mother (a sympathetic Anne-Margret). They pursue a band of gorgeous Brazilian models robbers of banks led by Vanessa (Gisele Bundchen, ex-girlfriend of Leonardo DeCaprio), an explosive and leggy gal. When they are on the heels of the gang , the crook girls drive a speed demon pursued by the taxi in a fast and furious car race .

The film displays action ,comedy , intrigue , tongue-in-cheek and results to be quite entertaining . There are chases galore with impressive velocities . Almost all shots in which you see the taxi or other cars in the street, or car stunts performed in the streets, were really filmed in Los Angeles, not New York . It's a run-of-the-mill action-comedy film because from the beginning to the final the fast movement and amusement is nonstop . The laughters and chuckles are varied and giggles are based about diverse characters and differences among protagonists , but they are unlikeliest pals . The film is exciting and humorous at times but is also ridiculous and embarrassing . However , sometimes is fresh and diverting and on a couple of memorable occasions is hilarious . Lively and atmospheric music adjusted to action by Christophe Beck and colorful cinematography by Burberry . The movie was lavishly produced by Luc Besson (producer of the French Taxi I,II ,III..). The motion picture was regularly directed by Tin Story , though Kevin Bray was originally set to direct, but dropped out . It's a fun ride that will appeal to Queen Lafitah fans and action-comedy buffs . Rating : Below average .

TAXI is the American remake of the quirky 1998 Luc Besson comedy. While the core of the film is still oriented around fast cars, hot chicks and zany humour, the film's light-hearted French comedic ambiance has been replaced with a dirtier, more strident, and somewhat more serious American action-comedy feel, which, although it tries hard, doesn't quite translate as it should. Queen Latifah leads as Belle Williams, a taxi driver who runs a souped-up Ford around the meaner streets of the city. Jimmy Fallon plays the unco New York cop who lands in her cab one day in pursuit of a bunch of foxy Brazilian bank robbers. Together, they muddle through car-crashes, shoot-outs and weirdly-decorated apartments to bring crooks to justice. While the plot sounds like a good premise for a decent comedy, the film is sorely lacking in script composition. The one-liners are crap, the jokes feel forced, and the script, which alternates between taking itself too seriously and sheer stupidity, does no justice whatsoever to the energetic and talented cast. A major disappointment from what looked to be a brilliant film. Someone should remake it in six more years - with a little more skill, I hope.

When he loses his driver's license, an inept police officer (Jimmy Fallon) must rely on the reckless driving skills of a taxi driver who would prefer to drive race cars (Queen Latifah) to help him stop a gang of beautiful Brazilian bank robbers.

The premise sounds like one of those film that are really stupid yet still kind of funny. However, it didn't really work out like that. The film wasn't a complete dud it just wasn't very funny. I wasn't surprised this film didn't do so well in theaters. The previews were weak and a lot of people don't like Jimmy Fallon. I only saw it because of Queen Latifah. Unfortunately, she couldn't save the movie. The film was just too childish and unoriginal. There were a few funny lines yet nothing that really made me laugh a lot. It starts off well but then it starts to drag and it feels a lot longer than 97 minutes. I even had low expectations because the critics murdered the movie but it was not very funny.

Queen Latifah is easily the best thing about Taxi. She has a lot of charisma and she makes the film watchable. Jimmy Fallon was okay, nothing special. Sometimes he tried too hard to be funny though. For his first movie, he sure made a poor choice. He could have a successful movie career, he just needs to make better choices. Gisele Bundchen is very beautiful and she did a good job but her role didn't exactly call for a lot of acting talent. The direction was uneven and Tim Story isn't a very good director. Also, the chemistry between Latifah and Fallon just wasn't there and they didn't seem right for each other. This comedy just suffered from a weak script and weak direction. It ended up being a below average comedy and it wasn't worth watching in theaters. In the end, if you're interested in watching Taxi wait for video. Rating 4/10

A stupid detective that is not a good driver uses a terrific taxi driver, who dreams to be a pilot of racing car, to chase four bank robbers in a BMW. With this simple story line, "Taxi" is a very silly movie, but I laughed a lot. The greatest attraction for me was certainly the debut of the Brazilian top model Gisele Bündchen as "actress". But indeed Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon carry this dumb, ridiculous and absurd story in a very funny way. Another funny situation for the Brazilian viewers is to hear Ana Cristina de Oliveira speaking Portuguese with a strong accent from Portugal as if she were Brazilian. I laughed a lot with her pronunciation in Portuguese, which sounds very funny for us. I totally disagree with comments like "the worst movie ever made", probably made by persons without sense of humor as commented by another IMDb user. "Austin Powers" movies, just as an example, are dumber and less funny than "Taxi". If the viewer does not have much expectation about this film, he or she may probably have a good time. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Taxi"

This is the American version of the French Taxi films and it suffers in comparison.

I'm not kidding when I say that this a remake of the three French films since although the film is mainly a poor remake of the the first film, it lifts sequences from the second and third films.

Its a mess, a real mess. I'm a huge huge fan of the French films, and for me there was no real point in my seeing this since anything that worked came from the originals.

Why did they bother? They changed the sex of the lead (though the Queen is excellent), combined others and rewrote the cops mother to the point of stupidness. They lost any sense of timing and connection...they should have started from the ground up.

Its not the painfully awful film that some reviews made it out to be, but it is a waste of time. If you can find the originals and watch those. That should take you the better part of 5 hours and in the end you will not feel as though you've wasted your life.

3 out of 10.