Taxi (1998)

A check-your-brain-at-the-door concoction of automotive adrenaline and jaw-dropping stunt driving, it's easy to see how Taxi's script was cranked-out in 30 days by prolific French director (serving as producer and screenwriter on this outing) Luc Besson. As transparent as the script and characters are, at a brisk 90 minutes, there isn't much time to ponder the details of characterization and plot development amid the ever increasing blur of smashes, crashes, and consistently amusing vehicular mayhem. Loud and obnoxious, though good-humored if not a bit juvenile, the souped-up super taxi will likely re-conjure dreams of the supercharged, gadget-filled James Bond cars of childhood fantasies. Racing through the streets of Marseilles at breakneck speeds and proving that you don't need buckets of cash and computer-generated effects to create an effectively effervescent popcorn movie, Taxi is the epitome of sensory overload over substance. Though more than a little of the film's flamboyantly French humor will likely be lost to international audiences, the easygoing nature of the film combined with its infectiously cartoonish characters and action may not deliver any redeeming social messages or any major cinematic epiphanies, though you're not likely to find yourself checking your watch or drifting off into a celluloid-induced coma either. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide