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Liam Carey reviews 
Columbia TriStar
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MTD 5043
- Running time: 84 minutes
- Year: 2000
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 14 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: French
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Making-Of Documentary Video, Main Cast and Crew Filmographies, Trailer
Director:
- Gerard Krawczyk
Cast:
- Daniel: Samy Naceri
Emilien: Frederic Diefenthal
Lilly: Marion Cotillard
Camille: Manuela Gourary
Petra: Emma Sjoberg
Chief Inspector Gibert: Bernard Farcy
Joe: Georges Neri
Fittingly, Taxi 2 – the sequel to 1998’s glorious car-chase action comedy from Luc Besson‘s production company – arrived with admirable alacrity just 12 months or so after the first movie, reprising its turbo-charged, tongue-in-cheek schtick and utilising the same main cast.
Thus, a sense of pleasing familiarity will swiftly ensue for fans of the original, continuing as it does the adventures of maverick Marseille taxi driver Daniel and bungling-but-earnest city cop Emilien. Taxi brought these two disparate, yet cutely observed, characters together via the former’s unintentional involvement in a major crime bust undertaken by the latter’s anti-terrorism bureau. Its plot was minimal and essentially superfluous, but the staggering and simply blissful camerawork with its sense of genuine speed and unabated momentum completely overshadowed everything else, as it was surely intended to do. The knowing humour, playful dialogue and some sexy shenanigans only added to a fantastically enterataining ride.
Attempting to pull off the coup a second time, Besson – again in producer/writer capacity – slightly overcooks these same ingredients. Recapturing Taxi‘s sheer freshness and verve was always going to be a tough ask and while the actual chases through various streets and down several roads and motorways are effortlessly the equal of anything in the first film, Taxi 2 takes the concept of a souped-up Peugot saloon just a little too far by allowing it to take to the air in pseudo James Bond-style. Much like those 007 movies from the 1980s, when the gadgets grew evermore fantastical and rather throwaway, upping the ante in such a manner has the side-effect of reducing the pure adrenaline thrill offered by more reality-based manoeuvres.
The repartee is again nicely done (if slightly rushed this time), while the jokes are also often hilarious (as previously, nothing is lost in the subtitled translation). The most memorably daft character from Taxi, the bumbling Superintendent Gibert with a penchant for farcical behaviour – thankfully returns in a prominent role, while Lilly – Daniel’s gorgeous girlfriend with a furnace-hot libido – is still in the picture and proves the catalyst for events in this second adventure.
There are sight-gags aplenty, as well as an ingenious set-piece concerning a hi-tech, voice activated car designed to give diplomats and other important personnel maximum protection against all kinds of potential attack, but somehow it feels rather too silly and lightweight at times.
Furthermore, the sexual innuendo is rather more explicit than in the first movie, with some flagrantly non-PC jokes about policeman who like to “guzzle knobs” (as the subtitles tactfully put it) and a couple of somewhat obvious mix-ups between Daniel and Lilly over the phone, where overheard noises and dialogue give her misleading impression of what’s actually going on. For a 12-certifcate (compared to Taxi’s 15), the martial arts fight sequence manages to reveal (unintentionally or otherwise) more of the female agents’ anatomies than expected – and in the case of statuesque blonde Petra, sans underwear due to an earlier incident, her highkicks and backflips leave absolutely nothing to the imagination.
In terms of extras, Metrodome offer a better package than they did for the first Taxi, but not by much. Its animated menu screens are pleasing on the eye, although the scene index screens are in fact static and – on a PC-DVD player – can be frustratingly awkward to select or naviagte. 14 chapters is also, in all honesty, completely inadequate even for an 84-minute film.
At least the picture is Anamorphic Widescreen on this occasion and a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is offered as well as the Dolby Surround 2.0 option. The “Documentary Video” is just a standard Behind-the-Scenes featurette lasting around 10 minutes, with its typical splicing of movie clips, interview footage and shots of making the movie giving a brief glimpse into the process involved while never concentrating on anything long enough to satisfy.
Taxi 2 was obviously huge fun to make, and the feelgood factor is again extremely high, yet overall it falls short of its predecessor, with an ending which comes to a sudden stop without fulfilling its promise of a big finale.
The main question now is… can this formula can withstand another 90-minute indentikit romp without losing its charm? The potential for a lucrative franchise seems almost undeniable, but it would be a shame if what began as a fantastically enjoyable and winning enterprise ended up a mere caricature of itself.
“Ninja!”
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.