I knew TAXI was a French film with a screenplay by Luc Besson but that was all I knew about it . I speculated that since it was written by Besson we'd be seeing a very violent thriller but that's not what TAXI turned out to be since it's an entertaining comedy
Pizza delivery boy Daniel Morales drives his own unlicensed taxi and one day makes the mistake of driving ( In his own illegal manner ) Emilien to his place of work which is bad news for Daniel because Emilien is a police inspector . Daniel is given the choice of helping the police catch a bunch of German bank robbers dubbed " The Mercedes Gang " or lose his driving license
Did I say this was entertaining ? It's also very likable and much of that's down to Besson's screenplay which is devoid of the sometimes sickening violence which did spoil for me NIKITA and LEON and they only hint that it was written by Besson being the fact that policemen are stupid . You do get the impression from all of his movies that Besson has a pathological dislike of cops but thankfully he doesn't get too polemical this time . Director Gerard Pires complements the screenplay by casting two young and likable actors in the lead roles
There are a couple of flaws to TAXI . While being the chase and crash sequences are well directed it's unlikely cars flip up into the air as seen here . There's also a plot hole in that if the cops know where the raids are going to take place they don't bring in helicopter surveillence , but again being a Besson script the police are portrayed as being terminally stupid so I don't know if it's a plot hole as such . One thing that did annoy me is Daniel and Emilien sharing a joint which is a scene that certainly wasn't needed in the film
But I saw several films the day I saw this and TAXI was undoubtedly the best movie I saw that day . It's not too difficult to see why the French film industry has been so successful over the years
Pizza delivery boy Daniel Morales drives his own unlicensed taxi and one day makes the mistake of driving ( In his own illegal manner ) Emilien to his place of work which is bad news for Daniel because Emilien is a police inspector . Daniel is given the choice of helping the police catch a bunch of German bank robbers dubbed " The Mercedes Gang " or lose his driving license
Did I say this was entertaining ? It's also very likable and much of that's down to Besson's screenplay which is devoid of the sometimes sickening violence which did spoil for me NIKITA and LEON and they only hint that it was written by Besson being the fact that policemen are stupid . You do get the impression from all of his movies that Besson has a pathological dislike of cops but thankfully he doesn't get too polemical this time . Director Gerard Pires complements the screenplay by casting two young and likable actors in the lead roles
There are a couple of flaws to TAXI . While being the chase and crash sequences are well directed it's unlikely cars flip up into the air as seen here . There's also a plot hole in that if the cops know where the raids are going to take place they don't bring in helicopter surveillence , but again being a Besson script the police are portrayed as being terminally stupid so I don't know if it's a plot hole as such . One thing that did annoy me is Daniel and Emilien sharing a joint which is a scene that certainly wasn't needed in the film
But I saw several films the day I saw this and TAXI was undoubtedly the best movie I saw that day . It's not too difficult to see why the French film industry has been so successful over the years