Luc Besson remakes...
I think most Newmoanyeah readers are fans of Leon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, and La Femme Nikita. That's a completely uneducated assumption, but who's that really hurting?

Much like Nikita, another one of Besson's French films has made its way to the U.S. as a remake: Taxi. Unlike Nikita's counterpart Point of No Return which starred Bridget Fonda, I do NOT get a good vibe for the US version of Taxi which stars Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah.

Say it right Frenchie...
Don't get me wrong... I think SNL's weekend update sucks without Jimmy and I like "U.N.I.T.Y." as much as any straight male should, but that pairing has BOMB written all over it regardless of how good the original was.

And that's my point here: The original Taxi (1998) is a kick-ass action/comedy buddy flick. The trailer for the "new and improved" Taxi seems like an over-the-top parody of itself. The original starred an Adam Sandler lookalike in Latifah's cab driver role and, as such, I'm guessing the love interest is nowhere near as smoking hot (or female) as the chick in the French version.

While I don't want to badmouth the U.S. flick too badly without having seen it (though I am tempted to badmouth The Transporter 2 since the first one was so bad... hey, not even Luc can bat 1.000), I do want to stress how good the French film is. It's good enuogh that I want to pick up the two sequels.

On the web: The orignal Queen Latifah-less Taxi on DVD