Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

johnnyboyz By the time Taxi 3 will, for whatever reason, roll onto your screens right before your eyes, after having seen the first two in this laborious French franchise, you'll only be as tired of it as those playing the lead roles look of their characters. The film is a limp; dull; daft; repetitive; plodding piece, a wondering, staggering film dragging its content along like a Neanderthal from many-a century ago might drag its knuckles along as it journeyed from A to B. Thin on plot and character but high on spectacle; moping and chasing, the series takes a turn at stage three to less-so resemble a Ferrari and more-so begin to dramatically resemble a beaten up 80s Lada. Like a Rickshaw driver at the end of a very busy day, this series has officially stretched its premise and wholly run out of puff; and I wouldn't be so sour about things if it'd brought about better products out of Luc Besson's Europacorp company in recent years. Sadly, the pay-cheque (and that's all Taxi 3 is) clearly went on to fund other ventures Besson has had a finger in developing since, such as the Transporter series and the Banal Banlieue 13 franchise.The film actually beings with a mock-James Bond opening sequence, in which action man Sly Stallone is chased by a bunch of Xtreme-Sports bad guys before bumping into Daniel's (Naceri) taxi and speeding off, out running a train in the process of dodging the enemy. Cue mock-Bond title sequence, and you think to yourself that they've realised just how stupid; just how poor; just how nonsensical the franchise is in its action infused attitudes to itself that it's had to go down this route of self reflexivity. Later on, the film will fall back on similarly constructed idiot action sequences for sake of dramatic involvement, thus completely undermining its own point - if there was even one there initially.Leads Samy Naceri and Frédéric Diefenthal look bored with their task of playing Daniel, the cab driver come good, and incompetent French copper Émilien. They look fed up, as if they didn't want to be there, as if the film was contractually bound to their starring in the first two and thus, their presence in the third film was compulsory. The two share no chemistry, as if the second time was enough time spent together doing this and now that we're onto the third outing, half the effort will suffice. One sits here and says these are the leads, the film actually centres in on Émilien and his new state of marriage with Emma Wiklund's Petra for the best part of the opening forty minutes; all the while sidelining Daniel for Émilien. Where's the star? Where's the hero from the first two? Where, with his razor wit and casual destruction of the highway code for sake of schlock laughs, is the reason these films were even popular in the first place? Where's Daniel? When he does make himself known, he's bickering with girlfriend Lilly (Cotillard, whom by this point the series needed more than she needed it following the opposite) over his obsession with his taxi and later putting pregnancy tests in his mouth.Daniel's sidelining and Émilien's subsequent promotion sees the roles reversed from the first two, in that one is now very much in a relationship and now apparently takes the reigns for driving the film with the other single and now sidelined as a goofy supporting act. The loose plot is the same bilge recycled from the first two. These Taxi films aren't about story or narrative, they're about a bunch of thieves whom just happened to be in town; go around robbing places and/or kidnapping people and then instigate hijinks from the police officers whom call on the assistance of the aforementioned Daniel. Here, a bunch of Chinese villains take on the role of the faceless, anonymous, foreign bad guys; filling in for the Germans and the Japanese whom were both past occupants of said role. Their plan is hatched when mysterious journalist Qui (Ling Bai) turns up at the police station Émilien and the reoccurring chief character Gibert (Farcy) head operations. The thread-bear plotting is best highlighted in that if the police ever at all checked for I.D. at any point in the film, we wouldn't really have a film.The gang disguise themselves as Santas during this Christmas period at which the film is set, an early attempt at supposedly apprehending one of these Santas in a public shopping area resulting in one of many of the film's jokes being set up and executed with an almighty clunk as we correctly predict the Santa is not, in fact, one of the robbers and, in fact, is a part of the mall's festive attractions. One thing will lead to another after a drawn out hour or so of the dull leads and their boring respective marital situations, culminating in a sequence in which one of them is tied to a chair as a red digital readout ticks down to his supposed demise. Besson and his French/Polish directorial stooge Gérard Krawczyk know they cannot lump for another road chase to round things off, so everybody tanks off to the Swiss Alps for variation set on snow and ice, and yes, somebody does indeed go through the ice in the tamest of slapstick fashions. I've no problem with chase sequences or car chase sequences, but the spectacle of them alone is not enough to invest emotion in; we need to give a damn about those involved. Like upon hearing of a new film Besson had a hand in scripting, it's just difficult to care anymore.

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.

grillie Just finished watching all three Taxi movies. I liked Taxi 1, 'meh'ed at Taxi 2, and (thinking that a trend has begun and that Taxi 3 would suck so bad), I found myself laughing a LOT at Taxi 3...The jokes were funny and unexpected. The little throwaway gag of a policeman on a bicycle and his partner running beside him was made even funnier by how the politicians/ministers commented on it. Other jokes: The pregnancy test! The torture! The hidden 8 month pregnancy! Bai Ling! (actually, she wasn't too bad) Acting seemed more natural or at least more in character in this movie. The caricatures of Daniel, Lilly and Emilien were better defined with a real sense of camaraderie between Daniel and Emilien. Their scenes together have them really playing off each other. I did notice a little "Are they JUST friends?" vibe in Taxi 2 and their "We're going from friends to Daddies together!" scene totally made fun of the homo eroticism (or whatever it was I imagined)!Also, it was interesting how Lilly evolved from a 2D romantic interest in Taxi 1 to a phone-no-sex-buddy in Taxi 2 to a nagging but still loving girlfriend here (and she finally gets to sit in the TAXI!). The inspector just cracks me up with his soft, too-calm "Emilien" after the Santa Claus suit incident. This was so much funnier than a screaming "Emmmmeeeeellliienn!" And his key words! "Concertation. Reflexion. Action!" with the perfect gestures and arm-pumping motion. (Question: I thought the inspector hated all foreigners? So why the Bai Ling crush?) And who knew Alain (the token French black dude) was so funny! hehe, "I'm used to it." Funny facial expressions. Kinda glad they showed a little more of him in this film.All three movies were very well paced for action comedies. Right number of laughs and heart stopping scenes! The actors seemed to have fun in this one and you can really feel it. I didn't even mind that Samy Naceri looks ridiculously old (since the first one where he was 37!) because he just IS cocky yet charming Daniel and no one else can replace him. If you have this on DVD, make sure to watch the "Making of" special feature because seriously, how does the car miss the little camera in the middle of the road?!Video Games Influence: "Crazy Taxi" AND "Jet Grind Radio" (and a little bit of "Burnout") hee!

plmagis Interesting. As much as I liked Taxi II (I haven't seen the first yet), I was very disappointed by this movie and barely laughed. Most of the time I had the impression that I was as bored as the actors seemed to be throughout the movie and that they never enjoyed the movie either.The whole story is very unimaginative; the jokes are lousy; the action scenes are poor (a show-off of what is technically possible as stunts leaving the viewer mostly indifferent); the characters have deteriorated to bad parodies.In all, a movie you should try to avoid watching to preserve the good memories of the first movie(s).