Director: Gerard Krawczyk

Cast: Samy Naceri, Frédéric Diefenthal, Bernard Farcy

Synopsis: A Marseille police detective and his taxi driver friend help the cop’s accident-prone boss to guard a dangerous Belgian criminal.

Taxi 4 is, believe it or not, the fourth – and, to date, final – instalment of a popular French action comedy franchise which sees incompetent cop Frederic Diefenthal teaming up with a cab driver (Samy Naceri), and bears all the hallmarks of a commercial property from which all potential has been ruthlessly squeezed. Diefenthal and Naceri make a likeable duo, but Naceri was apparently in a poor physical state when the film was made, which is why we usually see him sat behind the wheel of his car. The comic duties mostly fall upon the shoulders of Bernard Farcy, who somehow manages to prevent his Clouseau-like character from becoming unbearably annoying. The plot about the escape of a Belgian super-criminal from Diefenthal’s custody is trite, and there’s no getting away from the suspicion that Taxi 4 is trading heavily on the goodwill of an audience familiar with the earlier films in the series.

(7th November 2014)