Taxi Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Taxi Blu-ray Movie Review

Gérard Pirès's Taxi (1998) was covered on our site eleven years ago by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov. To read Svet's thoughts on the film and his evaluation of French label ARP Sélection's audio-visual presentation, please click here.

Buddies who are also crime fighters.

Taxi Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Since Taxi never previously received a VHS, DVD, or Blu-ray release in the US, this Blu-ray edition from Samuel Goldwyn Films marks the movie's American debut on home video. The picture appears in its original theatrical exhibition ratio of 2.35:1 on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-25. The transfer appearing on ARP Sélection's region "all" BD-50 that Svet reviewed is likely the source SGF has used here. Despite this only being a BD-25, I didn't notice the light compression artifacts that Svet did. Taxi features numerous high-speed car chases, motorbike jaunts, and other action scenes. My Panasonic UHD Blu-ray player and QLED display handled them relatively smoothly. While I didn't have any motion-smoothing settings enabled on my TV or player, there was no ghosting or combing on this 1080p presentation. Colors in the bright daylight scenes throughout Marseilles (where Taxi was filmed), as well as some interiors, including Ms. Coutant-Kerbalec's kitchen (Screenshot #6), look warm and vibrant. Svet observed instances of extremely light denoising in close-ups boasting natural light. This is also apparent to my eyes in perhaps higher frequency on this US disc. Indeed, DNR is most conspicuous on facial close-ups, particularly during the first half of the film. It's less evident during the second half, though. I could clearly see grain in an office scene between taxi driver Daniel Morales (Samy Naceri) and police inspector Émilien Coutant-Kerbalec (Frédéric Diefenthal). (See Screenshot #s 15-16.) Grain and texture are more visible in low-lit interior scenes. For example, see frame grab #s 17-21. I noticed some aliasing on the white Venetian blinds inside the office of Police Commissioner Gibert (Bernard Farcy). (See screen capture #7). SGF has encoded the feature at a mean video bitrate of 26477 kbps.

Sixteen scene selections accompany the 89-minute film.

Taxi Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Samuel Goldwyn Films has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround mix (4166 kbps, 24-bit) and an LPCM 2.0 Stereo option (2304 kbps, 24-bit). Dialogue is spoken primarily in French. There's also some dialogue in German along with a little in English, Korean, and Portuguese. (I thought I also heard some Spanish but it's probably Portuguese.) Spoken words are moderately audible on the 5.1 track. Since I enjoy hearing this film's wide sonic field of f/x, I turned up the volume some notches above the normal level, which also amplified dialogue delivery a bit. SGF has optional English subtitles and English SDH. I played the film with the standard subtitle track, which indicates in brackets which language is spoken. The white subs appear in a clear typeface with a sans serif font. (See Screenshot #25.) If you have a UHD Blu-ray player with several subtitle display options, you might be able to get the subs to display beneath the picture and only along the black border like I was able to do. On my Panasonic UHD player, I was able to get a majority of the dialogue beneath the image track without cutting off the font type at all. (1) I pressed the Option key on my UHD player's remote control; (2) in the Operation Menu, I scrolled down to Subtitle Settings; (3) I selected Subtitle Position; and (4) I decreased the placement value to -13, which fit all the words on my screen at the very bottom. Second Sight's 2014 Region "B" Blu-ray, which is out of print, has compulsory English subtitles which apparently can't be switched off or "hidden" from view. I haven't seen this disc but my research indicates that at least part of the subtitles appear over the filmed image.

Technically, the lossless 5.1 is superior to ARP's surround mix, which is only 16 bit. (I don't have average audio bitrates for the French disc, though.) There's some quite effective separation in the placement of f/x. For instance, machine-gun bullets spraying on cars and walls are discretely located on the surround channels. Taxi often delivers split-surround sound with music blaring from the fronts and rears. Dick Dale's "Misrilou," which was featured in Pulp Fiction four years earlier, sounds pretty loud and dynamic here. The musical underscore and some of the ballads were composed by IAM, a Marseilles-based music group who collectively also go by Akhenaton and La Cosca. The film includes several French hip-hop songs by Akhenaton as well as other bands like Fonky Family, 3°Oeil, and Mafia Underground. Akhenaton wrote several variations of a theme for Lilly Bertineau (Marion Cotillard). They consist of relaxing piano music that nicely counterpoints the rap tunes.

Taxi Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The banner on the front cover labels this a "25th Anniversary Edition" but those expecting a features-laden special edition will be disappointed. There are trailers for some titles in the video catalog of Samuel Goldwyn Films. The disc claims to have an official trailer for Taxi but clicking on it only plays a snippet from an action sequence.

Taxi Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Taxi (1998) should at least be considered a minor classic in the French action/comedy hybrid genre. After all, it's not only been influential, but also inspired four sequels and a 2004 American remake. Samy Naceri and Frédéric Diefenthal share some terrific chemistry together. Cinematographer Jean-Pierre Sauvaire does an excellent job of tracking the high-speed vehicle chases. The picture's weakness is its treatment of female characters. For instance, the blonde Chief Inspector Petra (Emma Wiklund-Sjöberg) is essentially only in one gun shootout scene and merely on screen for Émilien's (and male-driven audience's) love interest. Taxi is worth seeing for Marion Cotillard's film debut. While she's featured in several scenes, Cotillard's character is mainly there because she's the live-in girlfriend of Daniel and not given much to do in Luc Besson's script.

The transfer on this Samuel Goldwyn Films Blu-ray looks clean and clear, although it's struck from a dated master that's been used for various European BDs. It has occasional DNR applied that's most noticeable in close-ups. The hyperactive DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix is outstanding. There are no extras. If you want to see the original making-of featurette, you'll need to get the UK disc, which has English subs. A SOLID RECOMMENDATION. Luc Besson fans will want to add it to their collections if they already haven't.