A mouthy and feisty taxicab driver has hot tips for a green and inept cop set on solving a string of New York City bank robberies committed by a quartet of female Brazilian bank robbers. Belle Williams is a speed demon. Flying through the streets of New York in her tricked-out taxi, she's earned a rep as New York's fastest cabbie. But driving a hack is only a pit stop for her real dream: Belle wants to be a race car champion. And she's well on her way–until she's derailed by overeager cop Andy Washburn, whose undercover skills are matched only by his total ineptitude behind the wheel. Washburn, whose lack of vehicular skills has landed him in the precinct doghouse, is hot on the heels of a gang of beautiful Brazilian bank robbers, led by Vanessa, their cold, calculating–and leggy–leader. To nab the evasive crooks, drivers license-less Washburn convinces Belle to team up with him to pursue Vanessa and crew. Belle has carte blanche to drive at any speed and break any law. The car-less cop and speed-demon cabbie–New York's unlikeliest partners– begin a high-speed game of cat and mouse with the robbers. That is, if Belle and Washburn don't end up killing each other first. Just saw this film at the sneak preview and was heavily disappointed. It misses everything the original had: flair, fun and exciting car races. Instead there is Jimmy Fallon. Who the heck is Jimmy Fallon? This guy is totally unfunny and can not act. Whenever he appeared I was clenching my teeth. Queen Latifah was okay but the relationship between her and Fallon's character was… not existent. The four gangster ladies are nice to look at but totally miscast. Even for a film like this it is laughable to think of them as bank robbers or villains. And the mother… ARGH! My suggestion: see the original! It IS funny, has actors who can act, the wonderful Marion Cotillard, car races in Marseilles and (the always popular) evil Germans ;) 3/10 I didn't watch the movie in the theater, 'cause I am a fan of the original three French movies (haven't seen the 4th one yet). "Taxi 1-3" are so funny and full of weird action scenes, that I was doubtful, when I heard about this remake and saw the first trailer in the theater back then. The trailer was awful and apparently these were the "best" scenes of the movie.<br/><br/>Anyway, last week they showed this movie on German TV and I forced myself to watch it. 90 wasted minutes. Jimmy Fallon, as the stupid cop, was … (fill in any bad words you are thinking of), Queen Latifah - well, okay. The only reason why I gave this movie two stars instead of none, simply because of Jennifer Esposito, who I really like. She lit up the movie in the few minutes she was on-screen.<br/><br/>If any company, who's in charge of making a remake of an excellent foreign movie, should think about dubbing those, rather then to badly copy them. Only originals are original! A bland, half-finished film that seems to have been conceived as off-peak cable fodder.
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330 weeks ago