Luc Besson's commercial instinct continues in Taxi 4, three months after bringing Arthur and the Invisibles to a China audience. The Taxi franchise seems to be moving from its action movie roots towards the sort of comedy that is without much intellectual basis but is nonetheless guaranteed to get a cheap laugh. The first three Taxis grossed nearly $200 million worldwide.

The fourth film is set in Besson's native France. On its opening day there, 450,000 people attended screening, 43,000 of them in Paris alone.

As with the previous films, Samy Naceri plays taxi driver Daniel Morales. Frdric Diefenthal is milien Coutant-Kerbalec, whilst Jean-Christophe Bouvet reprises his role as General Bertineau.

In this fourth installment, a Belgian criminal, wanted throughout Europe for his crimes, is in the custody of the Police Department of Marseille to be watched for a few hours before transferring to a prison in Congo. Unfortunately milien is tricked by the villain and convinced to let the prisoner go. He is fired but his friend Daniel comes to his rescue by telling him where the criminal is. Daniel had unwittingly aided the criminal in his escape when he was hailed from the police station. After this milien gets his old job back by telling the commissioner where to retrieve the criminal. He's then captured and taken to jail.

In addition to the recurring characters, Taxi 4 continues the tradition of featuring a special guest star -- in this case, soccer celebrity Djibril Cisse, playing himself.

Taxi 4 opens at cinemas citywide on October 4.

(China Daily 09/27/2007 page7)