Taxi (2004)

A mouthy and feisty taxicab driver has hot tips for a green and inept cop set on solving a string of New York City bank robberies committed by a quartet of female Brazilian bank robbers.

Director:

Tim Story

Writers:

Luc Besson (earlier screenplay), Robert Ben Garant (screenplay)

Stars:

Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon, Gisele Bündchen

3 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Queen Latifah	...	Isabelle 'Belle' Williams
Jimmy Fallon	...	Andrew 'Andy' Washburn
Henry Simmons	...	Jesse
Jennifer Esposito	...	Lt. Marta Robbins
Gisele Bündchen	...	Vanessa
Ana Cristina de Oliveira	...	Redhead
Ingrid Vandebosch	...	Third Robber
Magali Amadei	...	Fourth Robber
Ann-Margret	...	Mrs. Washburn
Christian Kane	...	Agent Mullins
Boris McGiver	...	Franklin
Adrian Martinez	...	Brasilian Man
Joe Lisi	...	Mr. Scalia
Bryna Weiss	...	Mrs. Scalia
GQ	...	Stopwatch Messenger

Storyline

Belle Williams is a speed demon. Flying through the streets of New York in her tricked-out taxi, she's earned a rep as New York's fastest cabbie. But driving a hack is only a pit stop for her real dream: Belle wants to be a race car champion. And she's well on her way--until she's derailed by overeager cop Andy Washburn, whose undercover skills are matched only by his total ineptitude behind the wheel. Washburn, whose lack of vehicular skills has landed him in the precinct doghouse, is hot on the heels of a gang of beautiful Brazilian bank robbers, led by Vanessa, their cold, calculating--and leggy--leader. To nab the evasive crooks, drivers license-less Washburn convinces Belle to team up with him to pursue Vanessa and crew. Belle has carte blanche to drive at any speed and break any law. The car-less cop and speed-demon cabbie--New York's unlikeliest partners-- begin a high-speed game of cat and mouse with the robbers. That is, if Belle and Washburn don't end up killing each other ...

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Plot Keywords:

woman | united states of america | usa | driving a car | car | 

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Taglines:

He's armed, but she's dangerous.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language, sensuality and brief violence

Details

Country:

USA France

Language:

English Portuguese Spanish

Release Date:

6 October 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Taxi

Filming Locations:

23rd St. & Madison Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,029,832, 10 October 2004

Gross USA:

$36,879,320

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$71,255,003

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox, EuropaCorp, Robert Simonds Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min 104 min (extended)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Almost all shots in which you see the taxi or other cars in the street, or car stunts performed in the streets, were really filmed in Los Angeles, not New York.

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Goofs

When the captain shows Washburn the newspaper, it features the mugshot with the fake mustache on, but after crashing, he took it off and threw it on the floor.

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Quotes

Washburn: Every hero has a weakness. Superman has kryptonite. Indiana Jones has snakes. Whitney Houston has Bobby Brown... or vice-versa...

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Crazy Credits

Outtakes are shown during the closing credits

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Connections

References The Lord of the Rings (1978)

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Soundtracks

The Cisco Kid
Written by Papa Dee Allen (as Sylvester Allen), Harold R. Brown, B.B. Dickerson,
Lonnie Jordan (as LeRoy L. Jordan), Charles Miller (as Charles W. Miller), Lee Oskar and Howard E. Scott (as Howard Scott)
Performed by War
Courtesy of Avenue Records / Far Out Productions, Inc.

User Reviews

Weak remake of 3 classics

This is the American version of the French Taxi films and it suffers in comparison.

I'm not kidding when I say that this a remake of the three French films since although the film is mainly a poor remake of the the first film, it lifts sequences from the second and third films.

Its a mess, a real mess. I'm a huge huge fan of the French films, and for me there was no real point in my seeing this since anything that worked came from the originals.

Why did they bother? They changed the sex of the lead (though the Queen is excellent), combined others and rewrote the cops mother to the point of stupidness. They lost any sense of timing and connection...they should have started from the ground up.

Its not the painfully awful film that some reviews made it out to be, but it is a waste of time. If you can find the originals and watch those. That should take you the better part of 5 hours and in the end you will not feel as though you've wasted your life.

3 out of 10.