Here's a new twist in Hollywood's never-ending battle to grab moviegoers' money before possible bad word-of-mouth gets around:
Taxi (PG-13) originally was scheduled to debut Friday in theaters. Twentieth Century Fox pulled the old routine of scheduling screenings for critics late so reviews couldn't be published until then. Advance buzz has been so negative, however, that Fox bumped up the release to Wednesday in order to rake in some ticket sales before the reviews are published.
We'll catch a Wednesday matinee and publish a review Thursday on Page 2B.
Not that we're looking forward to it. Taxi is an Americanized remake of a 1998 French comedy. For every successful translation such as The Birdcage, there have been handfuls of failures, including Pure Luck, Three Fugitives, Jungle 2 Jungle, My Father the Hero, The Toy, The Man with One Red Shoe and Fathers' Day. Moviegoers who don't remember history may repeat it.
Taxi stars Queen Latifah (Bringing Down the House) as Belle, a New York cabdriver who picks up Washburn, a bumbling cop played by former Saturday Night Live spotlight hog Jimmy Fallon. He's trailing bank robbers who double as Brazilian supermodels, led by Victoria's Secret eye candy Gisele Bundchen in her movie debut. Washburn has the requisite doubting boss (Jennifer Esposito), and a drunken mom (Ann-Margret) to boot.
The meter is running. Whether the movie goes anywhere remains to be seen.
