«Cab 5, or Pattaya in Marseille

Cinema Wednesdays - Marina De Toro

It all starts with Sylvain Marot (Franck Gastambide), a policeman in Paris, who is transferred against his will to the municipal police in Marseille. The transfer was mainly prompted by his adulterous relationship with the wife of the Paris prefect, but his prowess as a daredevil and experienced pilot was also not in his favor. When Sylvain arrives in Marseille, he discovers his new, decrepit police station and his new team, made up of broken-down, out-of-towners. But he quickly integrates, and there's no shortage of work to be done with ex-commissaire Gilbert (Bernard Farcy), now mayor of Marseille, who has to deal with Italian thieves who always manage to escape in Ferraris. The Parisian policeman soon realizes that the chase is going to be difficult, especially with the utility vehicles available to the Marseilles municipal police.

Tradition and renewal

Eleven years on Cab 4, Franck Gastambide replaces Gérard Krawczyk as director of the new Cab 5. This time, the duo of driver Daniel and policeman Emilien (Samy Naceri and Frédéric Diefenthal) are out of the picture, and the story's iconic Peugeot 407 finds itself exiled to the other side of the Mediterranean. What's more, the roles are reversed in the new duo, with Sylvain Marot as the pilot policeman and Eddy Maklouf (Malik Bentalha), Daniel's grand-nephew, as the mediocre Uber driver from Marseilles.

And then there's the film's original object, which reappears all the same: the car. Without it, the myth Cab is not necessary. Indeed, if the story is to get off to a real start, the Peugeot 407 must find its rightful place in the hands of a driver in Marseille. It's just the thing for Sylvain, as he needs it to catch the Italian gang, and it's Eddy Maklouf who has the contacts to recover the Peugeot from his uncle in Morocco.

Faced with these new characters, certain fundamentals are present: the famous «General alert!», Gilbert's blocked watch, nausea in the cab, stunts in the car and Pump it the Black Eyed Peas. Not forgetting, of course, the occasional allusion to the saga's instigator, Luc Besson. A few winks can be seen in a love scene in the sea that recalls The Big Blue or in a song referring to Nikita.

Just entertainment

Despite all these efforts to get closer to the first films, the result is unconvincing. The protagonists' offbeat, sometimes heavy-handed humor is certainly part of this universe., but Cab 5 is a succession of sketches with clichéd, incoherent gags. However, Franck Gastambide has put his heart and soul into the work, as he wanted to revive the saga of his youth by blending American-style action with French-style humor.

Nevertheless, even if the film didn't raise any great expectations in terms of cinematography, the script could have been a little more elaborate and the characters more polished. To no avail, the transitions are poorly handled and some of the characters introduced at the start of the film fall completely into oblivion later on. We're expecting more in 2018, with the means at our disposal and the many screenwriters deployed to write the story of this feature film!

The film is clearly not a cinematic masterpiece like the others Cab nor do they claim to be. Cab 5 is rudimentary entertainment and nothing more. What's more, the absence of Daniel and Emilien only accentuates the illegitimacy of this new saga, and the return of the Peugeot 407 can't compensate for this shortcoming. And finally.., Cab 5 is aimed above all at an audience loyal to the work of Franck Gastambide (Pattaya, Les Kaïra), but certainly not for fans of the saga now adapted for a new generation of viewers.

Write to the author: marina.detoro@leregardlibre.com 

Photo credit: © Pathé Films