TAXI (2004)

Film: Taxi
Director: Tim Story
IMDB User Rating: 4.3/10

Premise: Belle Williams is a speed demon. Flying through the streets of New York in her tricked-out taxi, she's earned a rep as New York's fastest cabbie. But driving a hack is only a pit stop for her real dream: Belle wants to be a race car champion. And she's well on her way--until she's derailed by overeager cop Andy Washburn, whose undercover skills are matched only by his total ineptitude behind the wheel. Washburn, whose lack of vehicular skills has landed him in the precinct doghouse, is hot on the heels of a gang of beautiful Brazilian bank robbers, led by Vanessa, their cold, calculating--and leggy--leader. To nab the evasive crooks, drivers license-less Washburn convinces Belle to team up with him to pursue Vanessa and crew. Belle has carte blanche to drive at any speed and break any law. The car-less cop and speed-demon cabbie--New York's unlikeliest partners-- begin a high-speed game of cat and mouse with the robbers. That is, if Belle and Washburn don't end up killing each other first. Written by Sujit R. Varma

Blog Review: Wow... This movie is down right not good. This might take the record for quickest movie drop off point in the history of films. The movie stars Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon as the most mismatched pair int he history of film. Now, I'm a fan of both people, I think Jimmy Fallon is funny when he's not trying to be Adam Sandler and Queen of course is great cause she's brash and over the top comes of charming and not forced. She's gone a long way from the U.N.I.T.Y. videos of the early 90's. Anyway, this film is a remake of the french film Taxi made by uber action director Luc Besson Most notable for the brilliant movies like The Professional or Le Femme Nikita but this film is a travesty. Now to be fair I didn't see the french version of this film or any of the sequels, prequels or reimaginedbut this film was bad on so many levels. The film is about these 4 insanely hot thieves, first off don't most models get the world at their disposal, aren't they given the world anyway. So why rob banks? For the thrill? Only becasue the script says so. But the films chases scenes are so long and drawn out they could be cut down and be more entertaining. Tim Story the director went onto direct the Fantastic Four Films, movies much better then this shit sandwich(sorry to be blunt). I remember nothing entertaining about this movie and yet one scene the opening scene stands out to me and my fellow film watchers as the point in which I knew this movie was gonna be terrible.

Movie Drop off Point: The movie opens with a bike ride through the city, quite possibly some of the best bike stunts on film since BMX Bandits or the 80's classic RAD. The stunts are exceptional and we are to assume this character is our lead, we have yet to see the face of the person in the bike. Now the point in which the film dropped off was pretty obvious. The stunt man looked like a 16 year old boy, but when the bike ride ends at the companies headquarters the rider is revealed to be Queen Latifah. Okay, nuff said. Now I'm not gonna make a crack about Queen Latifah being a large women, but the fact that the director wants us to believe that she can do all these amazing things on a bike are ludicrous. Now I believe she can hit a curb with ease, but coming off a incline on a roof of truck and bouncing around is just downright insulting to all of us who paid our hard earned money to see bad stunt work. Couldn't they've hired an out of shape stunt rider instead of a kid off the streets of Venice. That moment of the helmet reveal is Queen Latifah, everyone started laughing and it wasn't meant to be funny... At least not on purpose.

Recommendation: Watch Taxi Cab Confessions or anything else - 2 out of 10
Film Recommendation: Rad, Gleaming the Cube, The transporter 1