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A taxi that goes nowhere very fast

By Dave Kehr
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Friday, Oct 29, 2004, Page 16

A remake of a 1998 French film of the same name, Tim Story's Taxi is a bland, half-finished film that seems to have been conceived as off-peak cable fodder. Jimmy Fallon of Saturday Night Live plays Washburn, a New York City cop whose driver's license has been revoked after a number of traffic mishaps; summoned to a bank robbery, he impulsively hops a cab piloted by Belle (Queen Latifah), an aspiring Nascar driver who has customized her vehicle with a supercharged engine and a host of questionable modifications.

Belle likes driving fast, and Washburn likes being driven, so soon the two of them have formed an unofficial team. They set out in pursuit of the bank robbers, who turn out to be a gang of leggy Brazilian fashion models, led by fashion model Gisele Bundchen, making her first film appearance outside of a Victoria's Secret lingerie show.

In the original French film, which was written by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) and directed by Gerard Pires, the Queen Latifah role was played by Samy Naceri, a popular French comedian of Algerian descent. It's interesting -- and a bit depressing -- to see how easily one country's ethnic cliches can be superimposed on another's.

Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon star in the latest remake of the French movie Taxi. It's fast, furious and slightly disappointing. PHOTO COURTESY OF FOX MOVIES

Here, Queen Latifah has been drafted (as she has been drafted many times before) to represent some kind of irrepressible life force, supposedly unavailable to uptight white folks. Her bursting ethnicity somehow liberates Fallon's character, a timid young man who lives next door to his alcoholic mother (Ann-Margret, in a bizarrely misconceived comic turn). By the end of the film, Washburn has been transformed into a daredevil driver in his own right, affirming life and liberty by endangering innocent pedestrians as he caroms like a billiard ball through crowded Midtown streets.

After a few routine car chases, Taxi ends abruptly, as if the director Tim Story, of Barbershop, had simply thrown in the towel without bothering to wait around for the tired resolution of the tired plot. It's as if he has walked out on his own film, something many viewers of Taxi will be tempted to do as well. Taxi has been rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for some strong language and violence.
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