Post by StevePulaski on Jul 1, 2011 22:47:22 GMT -5
Rating: ★½
It's not only sad, but embarrassing to think that Taxi is a remake of the popular French trilogy of the same name. Not only does it remake the 1998, Gérard Pirès film, but it includes elements and little plot points from the two sequels. Never seeing the original French series, I can imagine how much more thought and care was put into them from the looks of their trailers. Just from their trailers, it looks better than this could've hoped to be.
Taxi is not only lame, but it's extremely unfunny. Its idea of humor is either Queen Latifah yelling at Jimmy Fallon for being the stupid, whiteboy he is, or a long and cartoonish chase scene. Usually in movies, chase scenes are used to either portray a climatic scene or the biggest scene in an action movie. Taxi abuses them and uses them as humor in its contrived and incoherent plot.
The story focuses on a New York City cabbie named Belle (Latifah) who has a loving boyfriend and has spent the last five years working on her cab and has added features a sportscar could only dream of. The story also focuses on a cop named Andy Washburn (Fallon),a bumbling cop who is now forbidden to drive his cop car after an accident.
Trying to catch a group of supermodel bank-robbers, Andy's only method of transportation is a taxi. For some reason he can't get a partner, who knows? Luckily, he gets into Belle's taxi. The rest of the film is mindless action mixed with stupidity, dim-witted characters, and stiff dialog.
The question that grew bigger and bigger when I was watching Taxi was how did Andy qualify to be a cop in the first place? He's completely idiotic and two nickels shy of a dollar. He's so brilliant in one scene he runs into oncoming traffic holding his badge in an effort...to get a taxi? Instead waving his hand out, he decided cutting into a crosswalk holding his badge and starting an unrealistic pileup would be the correct way to do such a thing.
My other question was where does Belle find all the time and money to buy and work on her taxi, while still getting money from customers. It's a five year process, but all that work on one car could cost tens of thousands. I don't think it's worth losing sleep or evaluating.
Also, why is Ann-Margret, the gorgeous woman from Bye Bye Birdie, Grumpy Old Men, Viva Las Vegas in this mess playing Andy's alcoholic mother? Is alcoholism really so funny that such an actress needs to play it unrealistically? I hate to say it, but those scenes with Ann-Margret were appalling to watch to say the least.
Why Tim Story wanted to direct such an inspired mess of a movie is foreign to me since two years prior to this he directed the fantastic urban film Barbershop about several grown men talking up their city barbershop, sharing experiences, and giving relationship advice. Barbershop was well done and well written. Everything Taxi isn't.
Taxi is sloppy, and its computer-generated car chases don't work in its favor. In a good movie like The Fast & The Furious, the car chases are more like drag races, and they don't take place on a heavily occupied NYC block where it looks completely unrealistic. The Fast & The Furious's chase scenes are well constructed, and don't seem so obtrusive. Also, there are other little minor jokes that don't involve chase scenes. In Taxi, that's all they got.
Starring: Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon, and Ann-Margret. Directed by: Tim Story.
It's not only sad, but embarrassing to think that Taxi is a remake of the popular French trilogy of the same name. Not only does it remake the 1998, Gérard Pirès film, but it includes elements and little plot points from the two sequels. Never seeing the original French series, I can imagine how much more thought and care was put into them from the looks of their trailers. Just from their trailers, it looks better than this could've hoped to be.
Taxi is not only lame, but it's extremely unfunny. Its idea of humor is either Queen Latifah yelling at Jimmy Fallon for being the stupid, whiteboy he is, or a long and cartoonish chase scene. Usually in movies, chase scenes are used to either portray a climatic scene or the biggest scene in an action movie. Taxi abuses them and uses them as humor in its contrived and incoherent plot.
The story focuses on a New York City cabbie named Belle (Latifah) who has a loving boyfriend and has spent the last five years working on her cab and has added features a sportscar could only dream of. The story also focuses on a cop named Andy Washburn (Fallon),a bumbling cop who is now forbidden to drive his cop car after an accident.
Trying to catch a group of supermodel bank-robbers, Andy's only method of transportation is a taxi. For some reason he can't get a partner, who knows? Luckily, he gets into Belle's taxi. The rest of the film is mindless action mixed with stupidity, dim-witted characters, and stiff dialog.
The question that grew bigger and bigger when I was watching Taxi was how did Andy qualify to be a cop in the first place? He's completely idiotic and two nickels shy of a dollar. He's so brilliant in one scene he runs into oncoming traffic holding his badge in an effort...to get a taxi? Instead waving his hand out, he decided cutting into a crosswalk holding his badge and starting an unrealistic pileup would be the correct way to do such a thing.
My other question was where does Belle find all the time and money to buy and work on her taxi, while still getting money from customers. It's a five year process, but all that work on one car could cost tens of thousands. I don't think it's worth losing sleep or evaluating.
Also, why is Ann-Margret, the gorgeous woman from Bye Bye Birdie, Grumpy Old Men, Viva Las Vegas in this mess playing Andy's alcoholic mother? Is alcoholism really so funny that such an actress needs to play it unrealistically? I hate to say it, but those scenes with Ann-Margret were appalling to watch to say the least.
Why Tim Story wanted to direct such an inspired mess of a movie is foreign to me since two years prior to this he directed the fantastic urban film Barbershop about several grown men talking up their city barbershop, sharing experiences, and giving relationship advice. Barbershop was well done and well written. Everything Taxi isn't.
Taxi is sloppy, and its computer-generated car chases don't work in its favor. In a good movie like The Fast & The Furious, the car chases are more like drag races, and they don't take place on a heavily occupied NYC block where it looks completely unrealistic. The Fast & The Furious's chase scenes are well constructed, and don't seem so obtrusive. Also, there are other little minor jokes that don't involve chase scenes. In Taxi, that's all they got.
Starring: Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon, and Ann-Margret. Directed by: Tim Story.