Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger
Starring: Samy Naceri, Frederic Diefenthal, Emma Sjöberg, Marion Cotillard
Director: Gerard Krawczyk
Sequels don’t usually live up to the originals but when they do they have been known to excel. TAXI 2 does just that. It’s funnier, faster and has even better car chases. This is action comedy at it’s best!
If you live in mainland Europe you’ll almost definitely have heard of the first one even if you did not see it, as TAXI was hugely successful there, but in the USA and UK it suffered from the public’s aversion to subtitles or it was badly dubbed into English.
Yes, TAXI 2 is a French language film but wait, keep reading, this is NOT an art or other kind of minority interest movie, this is fast action plus comedy, silly at times, but it works. This is mainstream cinema, it’s written by Luc Besson, so come on now, let those barriers down, this film is fun!
The storyline, well actually the storyline doesn’t make much sense, something about the French trying to win a contract from the Japanese. But it really doesn’t matter because you could probably enjoy the visual action and jokes even without reading the subtitles. All the main characters are back from the original, Daniel (Sami Naceri) is still trying to get back home to have sex with his girlfriend, the gorgeous Lilly (Marion Cotillard) and Emilien (Frederic Diefenthal) still can’t drive but he has a lot more luck with Petra (Emma Sjöberg). Oh yes the taxi, well this has to be the best ad for Peugeot I’ve ever seen. The fastest thing on or off the road, you’ll believe a car can fly! There’s more gadgets in it than anything James Bond ever had, it’s even got a built in sick bag for passengers in the back seat as the normal reaction to a high speed ride in this taxi is to throw up! (It’s an ‘in’ joke in the film – you had to be there).You’ll also find out just how many police cars you can possibly crash in one scene – actually in one pile!
If you like mainstream, action, comedies and NOT art-house films, make sure you catch TAXI 2. Without a doubt it’s the best action comedy of the year. I can’t wait for TAXI 3.
