Taxi (Cert 12, 100 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Comedy/Action, also available to buy DVD é15.99/VHS é14.99)
Starring: Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon, Jennifer Esposito, Ann-Margret, Gisele Bundchen, Christian Kane.

BICYCLE courier-turned-cab driver Belle Williams (Latifah) has spent 10 years and countless dollars transforming her distinctive yellow car into a lean, mean racing machine.

She quickly earns a reputation as the fastest cab driver in the entire city, a claim to fame that proves invaluable when over-eager cop Andy Washburn (Fallon) commandeers her vehicle to chase a gang of bank robbers.

The high speed pursuit ends in disaster: Andy is stripped of his badge and Belle's beloved car is impounded as evidence by zealous FBI Agent Mullins (Kane), who is in charge of the case.

Andy begs his boss, Lieutenant Marta Robbins (Esposito), for a second chance, but her hands are tied. Determined to repair his tattered reputation, Andy joins forces with Belle to capture the robbers, led by feisty getaway driver Vanessa (Bundchen), in the act.

Taxi is a mildly diverting, fast-paced ride, feeding off the energy of Latifah, who looks mighty fine in Belle's heavily tweaked Ford Crown Victoria. Her comic timing is impeccable as ever, which is more than can be said for Fallon, whose pratfalls often miss the target.

The film begins badly with an outrageous opening gambit on a mountain bike set to Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" that truly beggars belief - not least because the stuntman pretending to be Belle is noticeably slimmer than Queen Latifah.

Action sequences are well orchestrated, perhaps a little too slickly; whereas the original French version of Taxi had a real sense of speed and danger to the car chases (members of the stunt team and cameramen were injured during the making of the film), the American version plays relatively safe. Tyres spin, rubber burns but the film's seatbelt is fastened at all times.

DVD Extras: Director commentary, The Meter's Runnin' making of featurette, Tour Guide: Jimmy Fallon featurette, Lights, Camera, Blue Screen... featurette, four deleted scenes, branching footage, Taxi Comedy Central special, Beautiful Criminals music montage, Inside Look: Rebound. Tweet