‘Taxi’: Why is everyone watching this awful Queen Latifah throwback?
Strange things keep happening on Netflix. And fans have clearly come to peace with it. If not, Queen Latifah’s comedy remake, Taxi, wouldn’t be on a surprise rise on the streamer, that too, after 21 years!
At a time when Netflix is busy reaffirming Hollywood that it’s, after all, a life-giver, the Rotten Tomatoes bomb with only 9% rating, Taxi, has sneaked into its global chart. Currently ranked seventh in the week dated August 18th to August 24th, Latifah’s action-comedy is a remake of the 1998 French flick.
The film is additionally the number one movie in three countries. This week alone, it has amassed 4.3million views from 7million hours of viewing. Taxi follows an inefficient New York City police officer, barred from driving. He eventually joins forces with a feisty and supremely skilled taxi driver who dreams of playing NASCAR to assist him in cracking a series of bank heists.
While Taxi grossed $71.3m against a reported budget of $25m, the remake was unfortunately blasted by critics. Even though its reputation is lambasted on Rotten Tomatoes, the audience response is poles apart from that of critics, with a glowing 43% approval on Popcornmeter. The disparity is honestly no surprise. It has happened before and might as well continue.
Taxi is not even available on Netflix in the US, the country that counts as one of the biggest streaming markets. However, given that the rating differences alone highlight the discrepancies in how the movie was received, the surprise rise on the streamer is not that big a blow of shock. It just means that the Latifah effect is still going strong, despite her contemporary inclination to small-screen projects. Not to forget Jimmy Fallon’s comedic punch-fest.
Netflix has also shown a renewed interest in comedy projects, especially in the last quarter. This curiosity could also be a benefactor to Taxi, which is currently storming the Netflix charts without a Stateside presence. Then there’s the possibility of a new audience discovery at play, which is practically a part and parcel of the streaming era. Meanwhile, fans of the original film might have also taken shots at the retelling.
Plus, one cannot exactly underestimate Netflix’s super-charged algorithm, which wastes no time with recommendations, whether or not you’re done with the one that’s on your plate. In short, many unforeseen factors can contribute to the viewers’ rekindled intrigue with 2004’s Taxi. But the one that may have been a game-changer two decades later could be the Netflix visibility.