| Taxi | |
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Film poster |
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| Directed by | Tim Story |
| Produced by | Luc Besson Robert Simonds |
| Written by | Luc Besson Thomas Lennon Robert Ben Garant |
| Starring | Queen Latifah Jimmy Fallon Gisele Bündchen Jennifer Esposito |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | October 6, 2004 |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Portuguese |
| Budget | $25,000,000 |
| Box office | $68,895,435[1] |
Taxi is a 2004 American remake of the 1998 Luc Besson-penned, Gérard Pirès-directed French film of the same name, starring Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon and Gisele Bündchen, and directed by Tim Story.
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Belle Williams (Queen Latifah) is a talented driver and auto mechanic who dreams of driving in NASCAR. As the film opens she celebrates her last shift as a bicycle courier by performing a crowd-pleasing sequence of bicycle stunts as she passes through New York City, breaking a speed record in the process. She has won her taxi license. Belle neglects her boyfriend Jesse (Henry Simmons) and has bestowed much love on her custom-built cab over the past five years. This evening, having skipped her dinner date, she installs a supercharger into the cab.
The next day, her first customer offers her a $100 tip if she can make it to JFK in fifteen minutes. She makes it in nine, making the passenger sick in the process. Meanwhile, a group of beautiful women exit the airport.
The action cuts back to New York City where undercover detective Andy Washburn (Jimmy Fallon) is about to bust a phone card ring from Cuba. He makes up a street name in Havana, which blows his cover, and a gunfight develops. Washburn's partner is wounded in the arm and the Cubans escape. Trying to follow them in his partner's car, Washburn starts it in reverse and crashes it. Back at the precinct station, Lt. Marta Robbins, (Jennifer Esposito) confiscates his driver's license and demotes him to Foot Patrol duty.
Later, hearing of a bank robbery, Washburn in plainclothes tries to flag down a car in the middle of a street, causing dozens of civilians, and their cars to crash into each other, resulting in a major pile-up. He flags down a taxi cab, which turns out to be Belle's. He commandeer's the car which transforms into the street car from before. They arrive at the bank just as the four robbers depart in a BMW. Washburn accidentally shoots out one of Belle's windows and they end up cornering the BMW in an alley. The BMW driver cleverly gives Belle the slip, but as the car passes she recognises the occupants as the same models from the airport. Their leader is Vanessa (Gisele Bündchen). In a misunderstanding, police arrive and hold up Belle and Washburn.
Belle's cab is impounded as evidence and she is taken in for questioning as a witness to the robbery; she is upset as it means the loss of two weeks' earnings. Washburn promises to get her cab back if she will join him on his beat—thus solving the problem of his confiscated license.
Belle and Washburn pursue the robbers, getting close once or twice. Washburn takes Belle home. His mother (Ann Margret) is constantly drunk and always has a margarita going in the blender. She brings up embarrassing moments of Washburn's past and why he's such a bad driver.
Later, Washburn talks to the impound cop (Patton Oswalt) and eventually convinces him to give him and Belle the cab back. They realize that the gang always robs banks just before the garbage collection is due. The robbers take the money, put it in the trash and the garbage man collects it. However, things haven't gone well, and Washburn is fired from his job. Later that night, Belle teaches him to drive. They discover that the garbage collector on the bank round has been performing collections for the gang because they have kidnapped his wife. They trace the kidnapper and recover the garbage collector's wife and all the loot.
The police learn which bank is next to be hit, and they lie in wait for the robbers, who take a hostage. After a hostage swap, the gang escape with Lt. Robbins as hostage, followed by Washburn and Belle in her cab. Belle calls on the help of her former bike messengers to pinpoint the location of the car. Using the cash from the garbage truck they pinpoint the operation HQ and negotiate a trade. Belle transforms the cab and during the ensuing chase they continually try to swap the hostage for the money while driving down the highway. Washburn forces the robbers down a long bridge he knows is under construction. With the robbers trapped on a section of the long bridge, Washburn and Belle laugh victoriously. Enraged, Vanessa fires her gun at them and wounds Belle. Immediately afterward, Washburn drives Belle to the hospital singing "Everlasting Love".
In the final scene, Belle is in NASCAR, fulfilling her dream, sponsored by New York banks. Washburn (recently reinstated back into the NYPD), Robbins, and Washburn's mother cheer her on. Jesse makes his proposal to Belle. Jeff Gordon, driver of the 24 car in NASCAR's top series, makes an appearance.
While the movie was a financial success, grossing almost three times its budget, it was universally panned by critics. Roger Ebert described it as "dismal" and "wall-to-wall idiocy".[2] Despite this, Taxi was released on October 6, 2004 in 3,001 theaters and opened at #4 at the box office. It grossed $12,029,832 in the opening weekend. It went on to gross $36,611,066 domestically and a further $32,284,369 from foreign markets contributed to a worldwide total of $68,895,435. Its budget meanwhile, was $25 million.[3]
As of November 25, 2011, it has a rating of 10% at review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes,[4] showing the film's negative reviews despite its financial success.
Taxi (1998 film), the original French movie.
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