Taxi 3

Taxi 3 : Here is a film that bears well its name : Yes absolutely it is the THIRD sequel of the same track race between the foreign Wicked bandits and the dumb French police helped by the turbo-charged taxi driver. After 2 attempts, you might expect a bit of "ageing" and maturation of this eye-catching concept, well except the the fun credits at the beginning and the surprise appearance of Mr Stallon himself, there is nothing really new :

• a simplistic story-line - a demagogue & super-caricatural description of the French police - a crude humor - not so impressive track race - action scenes with barely no action - pityful dialogues - actors who are never really exploited - no surprise happy ending

Apparently Mr Besson wanted to make a comedy that does not take itself seriously : well if you are not too hard to please concerning the subtlety of the humor you might get a satisfaction but it's not enough to save this farce because the supposed action scenes are nothing more than boring and uninspired. Furthermore, the grotesque is too serious not to be taken seriously. So you are left with the story, but it the carbon copy of the precedents except that the Chinese have replaced the Japanese and the Germans as the shrewd bandits...

It's a pity that Mr Besson the producer/writer does not have the same standard of excellence as Mr Besson the director. This film could have been a funny piece of popular entertainment but it was too botched up to live up to this title.

To sum up : a ludicrous popular comedy made of crude gags + no action action scenes in the wake of the worn out Taxi series. (4 out of 10)