|
|
Main About Reviews Articles Links Contact Old Site |
Classification: Bad Originally Published: MTV.com, 10/08/04 |
|
Taxi is based on a French film of the same name by Luc Besson (director of The Professional and The Fifth Element) and is based on a script co-written by two alumni of the brilliant sketch comedy show “The State."
Essentially, the movie is about how Jimmy Fallon, as detective Andy Washburn, the dumbest, most incompetent cop on the planet, must team up with taxi driver Queen Latifah, when his license is revoked after he backs a car into a bodega and murders a parrot. Fallon was funny on "Saturday Night Live" in the right sketch, but he doesn’t even come near the target here, mostly because his portrayal of a cop is totally unconvincing (I’m not buying the “WTC” citation on his uniform either -- what could this human car crash have possibly done of value on 9/11?). Latifah, showing none of the charisma she displayed in Bringing Down the House, primarily exists to say the word “Damn!” over and over again. Heterosexual men of all ages will welcome the presence of supermodel Gisele, who has the good fortune to be incredibly gorgeous and is therefore spared from making terrible jokes like her co-stars. During a key scene in Taxi, Latifah and Fallon accidentally get high on nitrous oxide and laugh themselves silly. Your only hope of laughing at Taxi is by following their lead and bringing your own tank to the theater. The original French film spawned two sequels. If you hold your breath for an American version of Taxi 2 I fear you will asphyxiate. |