Taxi (2004)

I was tempted to not say anything about this American re-make of the Luc Besson-produced French comedy which was jolly enough in a somewhat silly way.  This version follows the original pretty closely, but the driver of the souped-up taxi is in this instance none other than Queen Latifah, a larger-than-life presence that one can not quite dislike even when tempted to do so.  The feckless cop that she assists is some dire US comic that I never heard of and would be happy to never hear of again.  However the greatest crime of this version is to cast Ann-Margaret as the cop's sozzled mama.  Some actresses apparently don't know when to retire gracefully and while one can cherish the memory of roles taken in their prime, I would have thought that they might work out that cheesy caricatures work against their legacy; if Ann-Margaret must keep on working, she would be better off with the occasional Las Vegas extravaganza than an embarrassing role like this one.