Film of the Week: Stuber

I’ve listened to a couple of people’s opinions regarding this film, and they’ve both stated that Stuber is basically a remake of Taxi, a 2004 film which itself is a remake of the 1998 French film of the same name. Having not seen Taxi, I had to take their word for it, and also believe how bad it is. As I’ve only seen Stuber and not Taxi (2004), I could only talk about the “wannabe remake” as one of the people I was talking to, described it as. Upon doing a little research and read the plot of Taxi (2004), I started to understand the parallels between Stuber and that film. I also took note of the reviews Taxi had received and then realised I was basically compiling an article focusing more on other people’s reviews about a different film than my own about Stuber – and considering I hadn’t seen Taxi (2004), I wouldn’t be offended if you told me I cannot disclose my opinion about something I haven’t seen. To make things worse and add insult to injury, I haven’t seen the original Taxi (1998), either.

This article wasn’t coming together as authentic as I had hoped, but it did get me thinking. Stuber is a remake of a remake, and if I hadn’t known that, this article probably would have been easier to write as it would have been solely about the film without bringing in anything I haven’t seen to the mix. But I now knew that it was a remake of a remake, I had unintentionally make myself understood the connections between this and Taxi (2004), there was no going back even if I sat down and re-watched Stuber again; that knowledge would change how I perceived it the second time round, without the already acquired knowledge of how the film’s storyline plays out inside my head.

Stuber was only attempting to bring a film series that many people nowadays haven’t seen at all or completely forgotten after seeing the potential disaster that was the remake, into the modern age. Sure it has a different name, but Uber has become an incredible force within the Taxi world, so much so that regular taxi drivers have publically complained heavily about the destructiveness it’s having on the Taxi’s industry, so it’s only fitting that Stuber does the same with the film franchise Taxi. That’s the way the world is now working, whether we like it or not. Uber is not even mentioned on any of the Wikipedia articles about the Taxi franchise, another fitting nod to the disconnection Uber has with the Taxi business…

I then made a second realisation about how my article was going. Subtly ranting about an industry which doesn’t affect me and strictly speaking has nothing to do with the film itself, is not what I had expected.

With a strong cast, Dave Bautista (fresh out of the MCU might I add), and Kumail Nanjiani (who’s film career has increased rapidly over the last couple of years), playing Vic Manning and Stu, respectively, Stuber does offer good comedic timing – even if the jokes do go a little stale from frequent repetition. It’s a simple premise with a plainly clear plot and end goal. Sure, it’s an R-rated film, with plenty of swearing and blood and gore throughout, but it had the right amount to make sure that you are awake to process what’s going on at that point in the story, which is simple enough for you to catch up instantaneously so you don’t get confused and switch it off half way through.

In the end I realised my article far exceeded the 500 word goal I set myself with every film review and with not feeling 100%, I decided to just leave everything I had written in the article and release it onto my blog for you all to read.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)