I like Queen Latifah. She’s got a great sassy attitude on screen, and she can also act her heart out. She carried scenes in films like “Bringing Down the House” and “Chicago” (for which she was well deserving of her Oscar nom). Unfortunately, in “Taxi,” she has so little to work with when it comes to Jimmy Fallon.

Jimmy Fallon seems to be taking the Joe Piscopo career track post SNL. He really doesn’t have what it takes to come alive on the big screen, even though that those who work with him fall in love with his weak improv skills. Robin Williams this kid ain’t. And without Horatio Sanz to giggle with like immature school boys, Fallon’s entire comedic foundation crumbles.

Based on a French film by Luc Besson, “Taxi” follows a cop named Washburn (Jimmy Fallon) who lost his license and must commandeer a NYC taxi to chase down bank robbers. Yeah, not a lot of plot. That’s why I was hoping for more action. To the film’s credit, the car chases were pretty good when they were on the screen. I just wish there was less attempts at character development with these characters.

I was expecting something slightly different with this film. In short, I was expecting something like “The Chase” (that 1990s box office flop with Charlie Sheen). But instead of 90 minutes of a supercharged taxi chasing supermodel bank robbers, there was a lot of rocky character examination with the insipid Washburn.

The DVD saves itself by offering a nice slate of special features. Director Tim Story gives a relatively insightful commentary, although he shows a bit of his ignorance by admitting that he still doesn’t know who Anthony Scalia is. (“I think he’s some kind of judge,” he says.)

For the film’s theatrical release, Comedy Central produced a half-hour look at the film, hosted by R. Ben Garant and Tom Lennon from “Reno 911.” Unfortunately, improv breaks down here with Jimmy Fallon floundering around and Queen Latifah just trying to smile and look pretty.

There’s an extended version of the film featured on this disk, giving about ten more minutes to the character of Belle and her struggles to sustain a relationship. If you consider the movie to be Belle’s story, it ain’t half bad, and we are given a reprieve in the extended version by not having to watch Jimmy Fallon until 15 minutes into the film.

There’s a handful of deleted scenes, which actually include some of Fallon’s funniest scenes. Too bad they didn’t advance the story enough to warrant keeping them in the film. There’s also a nice collection of featurettes, including a spotlight on the sexy criminals as well as a teeth-grinding annoying tour of the set with Jimmy Fallon (but then again, you know what I think of him).

The behind-the-scenes featurettes also include a look at the blue-screen technology used to make the film come to life. Of course, it is a bit like watching the classic Monty Python “Scott of the Antarctic” sketch where filmmakers fly to the tropics and paint a sandy beach white to serve as the snowy north. In watching all the preparation, equipment rental, visual effects and manpower, I can’t help but wondering if it wouldn’t have been easier - and cheaper - to just shoot the in-car scenes in a car.

One irritating thing I found throughout the behind-the-scenes footage (aside from Jimmy Fallon’s incessant references to working on “Saturday Night Live”) was how the cast and crew kept talking about how challenging it was to act against a blue screen - or sometimes nothing at all.

Now, I give credit to film actors because I’ve worked on films and I’ve seen the struggles. I know what it’s like for an actor to actually be acting against nothing. But “Taxi” is not exactly Shakespeare. It doesn’t take huge acting chops to make the scenes work. Perhaps my wife put it best when she heard Jimmy Fallon talk about how hard it was to react to something that would be added later in blue-screen. She said, “Heck, Steve has to do that every day on ‘Blue’s Clues.’”



Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (2.35:1) - Enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Spanish and French language tracks. Spanish subtitles. English subtitles for the hearing impaired.