Taxi 1998.

Supercharged Peugeot 406.

Like Subway (1985) before it, the French action/comedy written by Luc Besson and this time directed by Gerard Pires, Taxi (1998) has a great opening sequence, on this occasion it’s not a car chase it’s the fastest pizza delivery your ever see accompanied by a fantastic Tarantino type sound track! Daniel (Sami Naceri) is a pizza delivery boy who trades up his two wheels for four and becomes a taxi driver. With his supercharged Peugeot, which has to be seen to be believed, our driver can get you from A to B before you can say speeding fine. Eventually the police catch up with our ex-pizza boy and work out a deal that involves driving around a police inspector (Frederic Diefenthall) who to date has failed his driving test on numerous occasions, but needs to catch some German bank robbers that use high-speed Mercedes saloons to evade capture.

Sami Naceri and Marion Cotillard.

Our action takes place in Marseille, and what action we get, fantastic choreographed car chases, pile-ups and gun battles are the high points of this insane movie. Its great fun, obviously not to be taken seriously but has the added bonus of a 22 year old Marion Cotillard as Daniels girl friend Lilly for which she was nominated for a Cesar Award for Most Promising Actress. The critics panned the remake by the Americans: so only except the original.