Customer Reviews
Hollywood Certainly Doesn't Make Them Like This Anymore - By: Vica, 27 Sep 2006 
Hollywood certainly does not, testament to this would be the 2004 hideous rehash involving Queen Latifa & some Swedish orientated girls performing the heist. The reason why the remake is so damned awful, is that Americans do not understand the subtlties of European humour, failing to realise that slap stick & obvious ploys to get women dressed in next to nothing do not work, nor does the ebonical slang that haunts many a film, spoken from stereotypical aggressive blacks.
Anywho...I don't own many comedy films in the film collection, often the formula is repetitive, & certain films can only be endured a handful of times before coming tiresome, & placed in the back of ones collection to gather dust, to be left there until the time comes when DVD's are replaced by something else alll together. Taxi, however, is a severely enjoyable romp, which I can find myself watching on a frequent basis as the film is just so damned entertaining.
A Luc Besson script, but not directed by him, presents us with our two main characters, Daniel the greatest pizza delivery boy turned Taxi Driver, & Emilien the most bumbling police officer since Inspector Gadget. The humour is grand, & the difference between the two is highlighted from the very beginning. Daniel is the smooth charmer, from which the humour associated with him comes at the expense of those around him, whilst Emilien is the source of alll the gags he provides due to his nature as a complete incompetent (this highlighted brilliantly in the scene where he is learning to drive). But do not let this fool you Emilien is a hard working honest man, & he is in no way handicapped, bar possibly his attempts of trying "too" hard.
The humour is understated which truly makes this one of the greats. Everything is done so stylish & classily, there are no gigantic slapstick moments, or moments of humour based of vulgarities, the humour is exactly what humour should be, quick witted dialogue combined with precarious "sit-com"-esque moments.
The film charts the progress of these two characters as Daniel is entrapped by Emilien & "forced" to work for him, as Daniel & the officers he work with, engage in various plans e.g Operation Cougar in vein attempts to capture the ever elusive & so wonderfully stereotypical German Mercedes Gang (what's in a name!). So the chase is on, & using Daniels modified Peugeot they formulate a plan to trap the krauts ("damn the special franco-German relationship"). This is truly a must for any fan of cinema.
