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Taxi
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for language, sensuality and brief violence
Starring Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon, Henry Simmons, Jennifer Esposito, Gisele Bundchen, Ana Cristina De Oliveira, Ingrid Vandebosch, and Magali Amadei
New York's fastest cabbie (Queen Latifah) uses her skills beind the wheel of her souped-up car to help an overeager undercover cop (Fallon) pursue a gand of female bank robbers. (20th Century Fox)
| GENRE(S): | Action | Comedy |
| WRITTEN BY: |
Ben Garant
Thomas Lennon Jim Kouf Luc Besson (earlier screenplay) |
| DIRECTED BY: | Tim Story |
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: February 15, 2005 Video: February 15, 2005 Theatrical: October 6, 2004 |
| RUNNING TIME: | 105 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: | USA / France |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The average user rating for this movie is 4.0 (out of 10) based on 35 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chuck M. gave it a2:
That's an hour and forty minutes of my life that was just wasted. How depressing.
Mark B. gave it a4:
This is a classic example of a "T.I.N.A.B.A.P.S." movie. You know, one where you watch the first few minutes, say to yourself, "This is not as bad as people say!" (hence the acronym)...and then watch the rest of it and learn why it IS as bad as people say! Well, the first ten minutes of Taxi fit the bill perfectly: there's a terrific action sequence during the opening credits, some funny Wacky Races-type sight gags as ambitious speed demon cabbie Queen Latifah tricks out her customized vehicle, and the very appealing presence of Latifah herself (more on THAT later)...and it's blanketed with wonderful wall-to-wall old school R&B on the soundtrack. So you say, "T.I.N.A.B.A.P.S."...and then Jimmy Fallon shows up. As a Gilligan-like cop who involves unwilling civilian Latifah in his pursuit of a criminal operation, he's absolutely unbearable: he twitches, mugs, slobbers, drools and hogs the camera enough to fill three Jerry Lewis pictures, and only Brittany Murphy's "I'm-so-cute-you-could-just-puke" performance in Little Black Book edges him out for worst acting in a 2004 movie! Taxi might, in fact, serve a practical and instructive purpose as a simultaneous how-to and how-not-to lesson in film acting and screen presence; watch all of Latifah's and Fallon's scenes together and you'll see how tremendously warm, natural, at ease with the camera, likable and charismatic she is, while he can't scrape together a single believable or nonannoying moment. (This holds true for both of them even during the scene in which they're high on nitrous oxide.) While it's definitely true that Latifah should shop for a better agent, she unfailingly makes pretty good movies (like the current Beauty Shop) into better ones while making terrible flicks (Sphere, Bringing Down the House) at least barely watchable while she's on screen. I'm not normally in favor of superimposing computer-generated images of long-departed stars like Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe onto TV commercials, but maybe there IS something to be said for improving all-time turkeys such as Myra Breckinridge and Plan 9 From Outer Space by artificially inserting Latifah into them. They'd STILL be terrible movies, mind you, but at least they'd have Queen Latifah!
Mikkel B gave it a3:
This movie is as far from the greatness of the original as "This movie is super good!!!" is from a real review.
matt w gave it a10:
This movie is awesome, a souped up cab with nitrous oxide, this movie is the best!!!
Kevin J. gave it a7:
It is the best movie.
Marc D. gave it a0:
This film proves one undeniable fact...foreign films should remain as they are.
Bit Burn gave it a2:
Some more Hollywood garbage.

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