Review of Taxi

Introduction

With Dick Dale and the Deltone’s ‘Misirlou’ playing over the soundtrack, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d wandered inadvertently into a Euro-trash version of ‘Pulp Fiction’. But do not despair, Gerard Pirès’ irreverent car chase fantasy (produced by Luc Besson) is much less interesting than that: an inconsistent assemblage of buddy-movie clichès with surprisingly enthusiastic acting and direction.

Video

Impressive transfer, with Cinematographer Jean-Pierre Sauvaire making the most of sun-drenched French locations and colourful widescreen photography. One glitch, widescreen TV users may find some irritation in the fact that fitting the image into your 16:9 ratio gets rid of the English subtitles. So get your French Dictionary out of mothballs.

Audio

An adequate 2.0 Dolby Digital French language track. It would have been nice to have a choice of either subtitles or a (no doubt terrible) English dubbing version, but no such luck. The bouncy music (which alternates between pounding hip-hop beats and lazy lounge music) is awkward but complemented by the audio transfer.

Features

Sparse. The Theatrical Trailer is rousing enough but the Filmographies are generally uninformative, although it seems that the entire cast have reunited for ‘Taxi 2’, which would no doubt delight fans of this sort of thing.

Conclusion

Daniel (Samy Naceri), a car-obsessed adrenaline junkie who thinks speed limits are for skateboards, has left his job as a pizza delivery boy and now drives a taxi. But no ordinary taxi: A Peugeot with added high-speed accessories that would send Bond into convulsions. An untimely road-trip with nerdy, near moronic cop Emilien (Frederic Diefenthal) has him temporary deputized as Emilien’s high-speed driver in order to apprehend a proficient group of German bank robbers. Predictably, much bonding ensues, with Emilien and his mother (Manuela Gourary) forced to move in with Daniel for reasons too contrived to go into here.

Naceri and Diefenthal play through the predictable buddy-buddy dynamic with gusto, so much so in fact that it’s a whisper away from homoeroticism. ‘Taxi’s boisterous political incorrectness would be refreshing: blatant sexism, racism and xenophobia: “Try telling one Korean from another” but it ends up being as tacky and derivative as Besson’s abortive screenplay. After a while, with one-dimensional character interaction taking precedence over kinetic destruction, one wonders who Pirès fetishises more – the thrusting turbo charged vehicles or the randomly selected ‘bits of skirt’ that litter the screen with nothing much to do. Indeed, the film’s idea of diverse female characters seems to broaden its range as far as athletic blond bimbos, subservient domesticated house-widows, and bawdy, man-hungry girlfriends.

That said, all generic elements are present and correct: fast cars, faster women, stake-outs, shoot-outs, antagonistic repartee, even the Police Chief (Bernard Farcy) who shouts a lot. And even if the humor has more than a vague tendency to the slapstick, some of the bickering exchanges have a loose, impertinent energy. The car chases, full of eye-popping zooms, bone crunching stunts and high speed photography are an old-school delight. Borrowing from movies as varied as ‘Heat’, ‘The French Connection’, ‘Ronin’ and even ‘Speed’ for the enjoyably flippant finale. However, ‘Taxi’ gets stingy on the slickly edited action sequences: We get much domestic banality, precious little destruction derby excess. However, with its matey banter, attractive, vacuous co-stars, a variety of high-performance vehicles and strategically placed cartoon violence, ‘Taxi’ will almost certainly find its place within the 21-28 male demograph. Basically, its ‘Loaded: the Movie!’ And if that sounds like your bag, you’re welcome to it.