Looking for a funny, feel-good movie to watch? Check out the 1998 action classic ‘Taxi‘. This popular film spawned four sequels and an American remake. It’s a buddy-comedy about a bumbling young cop Emilien and a rookie taxi driver Daniel, who just moved up from being a pizza delivery boy. The unlikely duo track down a gang of German bank robbers.
The hero car is distinctly French; a 1997 Peugeot 406 which Daniel has modified with a more powerful engine, racing tires and big wings. Daniel has hidden switches to transform the car from mild to wild when he needs the speed.
The evil Germans drive a pair of red Mercedes 500 E sports-sedans. The W124 E class was a popular car back in the day, but the 500 E is different. These were high-performance variants of the of the standard Mercedes E-Class sedans, hand-assembled by Porsche They were powered by 5.0 L V8 engines with revised suspension and chassis In the film, the bad guys rapidly repaint the cars silver to aid in their escape (kinda like in Cannonball Run).
Since it’s a feel good movie, you know there’s a happy ending. The bad guys are captured, the boy gets the girl, and our hero Daniel takes another step up in his driving career from taxi driver to Formula 3000 racer, complete with sponsorship from the Marseille Police Department, as their thank you for helping them defeat the Germans.
And if all of this car-crash, buddy-comedy stuff is just too silly for you, just tell your friends you watched a French film this weekend. Enjoy!
I have seen a few Luc Besson films I enjoyed. Might put this on the list!
Yeah, it’s just a silly, feel-good, buddy comedy. But the cars are cool.
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Boy oh boy do they ever hate the Germans, though.
I’m pretty sure I’ve watched the American remake. Unless I’m mistaken, it had Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon in it. It was a funny movie. I’ve never seen the French version.
Yes yes…I saw that one too. Camr out a couple years after the (successful) French movie.
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Gotta tell you, as long as you’re OK with subtitles, this original one is better.
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Specially the cars.
I’ll have to give it a watch then. 😉
I didn’t know the 2004 American movie was a remake. The original one looks funny; the Frenchs are good at comedy.
Yes, the seriess wa super popular in French speaking world. Many sequels.
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Taxi (1998)
Taxi 2 (2000)
Taxi 3 (2003)
Taxi 4 (2007)
Taxi 5 (2018)
Remake
Taxi (2004) USA
TV Series
Taxi Brooklyn (2014) US