Tweekums This, the third of the 'Taxi' films, sees a gang of thieves who dress up as Father Christmas staging a string of robberies in the Marseilles area. With Christmas approaching the police are convinced they are planning their biggest robbery yet. Not surprisingly police operations don't go according to plan; policeman Émilien manages to arrest his boss, Commissaire Gibert, because he had failed to tell his men that he was 'going undercover' by dressing as Father Christmas. Then Gibert allows a Chinese reporter into the police station and to accompany the police on active operations… it is a pity she is one of the gang! Somewhat inevitable Émilien ends up enlisting the help of his taxi driving friend Daniel and after a few problems they go after the thieves. If that wasn't enough both Émilien and Daniel learn that their girlfriends are pregnant… in Émilien's case he hadn't a clue even though she was eight months pregnant!Anybody who has seen the previous two instalments in this series of French films will know what to expect; lots of comically over the top action; including a taxi that travels faster than a speeding TGV train. The opening gives a hint of what is to come as Daniel drives Sylvester Stallone to the airport at high speed before the Bond-spoofing opening credits. The film itself is chock full of laugh out loud moments. Much of these laughs come during the over-the-top chases which involve thieves on rollerblades being pulled behind motorbikes, thieves in a monster truck and thieves skiing down a mountain followed by Daniel's 'winterised' taxi. Not all the laughs come from the chases; we have a drug dealer openly offering is wares to police officers in the police station, Giberts arrest and its hilarious aftermath and general police incompetence . The cast does a fine job playing their roles fairly straight despite the ridiculousness of the situation. Overall I'd recommend this to anybody wanting some good silly fun.These comments are based on watching the film in French with English subtitles.

slightlymad22 Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in his filmography in order, I come to his cameo in Taxi 3.Plot In A Paragraph: A gang of thieves calling themselves the Santa Claus Gang are running riot, and the police are nowhere near catching them. Police Captain Gilbert is distracted by a Chinese reporter writing a story on his squad, detective Emilien's wife has just announced that she's pregnant, and taxi driver Daniel is in the midst of a relationship crisis. After a string of mistakes in which the thieves outsmart the police several times with a reporter there to report on it all, Daniel steps in to help out.The tile sequence is fun, as its basically a rip off various James Bond titles Director Gerard Krawczyk had directed writer Luc Besson's last movie 'Wasabi' starring Jean Reno. Funnily enough, in the street market, you can clearly see behind Émilien in at least two shots a poster for 'Wasabi'Stallone briefly pops up for a taxi ride in the first couple of mins.

funero The best thing I can say about this movie is that it made me laugh. Some of the jokes and scenes were easily on level with the first two movies. Add to that healthy chemistry between the two leads and you get all the ingredients needed for a good buddy-cop movie.Unfortunately, Besson simply fails to string these bits and pieces into a coherent whole. Bad guys are the repeat from the second part, only without kung-fu and cool cars (pretty stupid decision for a movie targeting car enthusiast), and their plans and actions are complete nonsense. The whole plot seems to be there just as an excuse to throw in a bunch of obvious self-references, lame cameos (Sylvester Stalone as a secret agent?) and extreme sport mix-tapes (Besson's latest fetish, it seems).Action scenes are the final nail on the coffin. The Taxi series never had really spectacular car chases (the closest they came was the Paris scene in Taxi II), but they at least HAD some chases. Here, it's all bikes, monster-trucks, roller-skates and skis. Daniel's taxi performs several stunts and grows a few more SF accessories, but it doesn't really have much to work with, given the opposing arsenal.Overall, the movie has some funny bits (even more if you speak French), but the rest of it was pretty disappointing.

lastliberal The silliness continues with Besson and Krawczyk and the usual gang with the addition of a couple of new faces.In an opening number that is a parody of James Bond titles, Sylvester Stallone is featured. They go a credible job of presenting the Bond music and girls in this tribute.Another addition to the cast is the incredible beautiful Bai Ling (Anna and the King, The Lost Empire), who is ostensible writing a story on the police department and has tongues hanging all over the department.This time they are looking for the Santa Claus gang, who taunt the police by telling them when they will strike. While this is going on Émilien fails to realize that his wife Petra is pregnant and Daniel is so busy with his cars, that he doesn't have time to spend with Lilly again, who is also pregnant. That is just too hard to believe! Despite references to Bond, and a story taken somewhat from Lethal Weapon 4, it is another funny romp, this time through the streets of Paris, and over the mountains to Switzerland.I can't wait to see what they come up with in Taxi 4.