Taxi 3 (2003)

Directed by: Gerard Krawzyck | 84 minutes | action, comedy, crime | Actors: Samy Naceri, Frédéric Diefenthal, Bernard Farcy, Ling Bai, Emma Sjöberg, Marion Cotillard, Edouard Montoute, Jean-Christophe Bouvet, Léon-Pierre Mondini, Bernard Llopis, Jean-Louis Schlesser, Jean-Pierre Mas, Michel Neugarten, Patrice Abbou, Claude Sese

In all respects ‘Taxi 3′ is a meager extract from the first two parts. The originality, like the jokes and dazzling action, has had to be lost. Now the script wasn’t the strongest point of the ‘Taxi’ formula, but in this film Luc Besson doesn’t seem to have made much effort to make something decent out of it. It is nothing more or less than bad copying of the first two parts.

The film opens with a cameo from Sylvester Stallone, who is of course in trouble and has to get rid of his rollerblading pursuers. He gets into Daniel’s taxi and gives him an excuse to race through the streets of Marseille to the familiar musical tune. In this scene Sylvester Stallone’s dialogues are poorly dubbed, which comes across as very amateurish. It is clear that he recorded his text later. Following are the opening credits in the famous James Bond style. It is of course a parody, but this one is not really nice. The jokes are bland and predictable. For example, Emilien drops his weapon where 007 aims straight into the lens.

As in the other parts, we are dealing with the same cast. Everyone is back again. Only the magic and the fun is visibly gone; acting in this film seems to have become more of an obligation. Director Gérard Krawzyck fails to take the cast’s acting and action to the next level. Luc Besson seems to have entered a dead end with this film.

Is ‘Taxi 3′ really that bad? No, not that again, but given the level of the earlier films you might and may expect more than what you are presented with now. All in all, the film remains in the middle bracket and scores a tight enough. Maybe next time we should take the TGV. Even if he is a bit slower on the straight, he won’t threaten to fly out of the corner like ‘Taxi 3′ every now and then.