There's a running joke about New York cabbies -- you put your life in their hands if you take one.

This is basically the premise of Queen Latifah's lame road-rage comedy Taxi.

Latifah is Belle, a bicycle courier who's been working on getting a cab licence for five years.

Given that she was able to buy and then modify a cab that must have run her at least $100,000 on top of the $100,000 licence, she should have stuck with the lucrative bike job.

On her first day on the new job, Belle picks up Washburn (Saturday Night Live alumnus Jimmy Fallon), a New York cop who's a disaster waiting to happen.

He has wrecked so many cop cars his superior, Lieutenant Marta Robbins (Jennifer Esposito), has taken away his licence and demoted him to a beat cop.

Because this is Hollywood, Washburn and Robbins are former lovers and graduates of the same police academy.

Make that the Police Academy movies because that's about as real either Fallon or Esposito get at portraying New York cops.

Washburn hears that a robbery is in progress so he hails Belle's cab and the chase is on.

That's essentially what the next 80 minutes of Taxi boils down to.

It's one demolition derby after another as Belle and Washburn try to capture the bank robbers, a quartet of Brazilian babes led by Gisele Bundchen, former Victoria's Secret model and on-and-off girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio.

When they're not robbing the banks, Bundchen and her gang wear as little as possible and make it as clear as possible their sexual tastes are eclectic.

Bundchen has a frisking scene that brings a whole new meaning to the idea of a police pat-down, which is included to show just how low director Tim Story was willing to go for a laugh.

Story obviously forgot to tell Henry Simmons, who plays Belle's boyfriend Jesse, that this is a broad comedy and not another poignant episode of NYPD Blue.

Ann-Margret pops up as Fallon's alcoholic mother in a hammy role tailor made for Debbie Reynolds.

Latifah and Fallon have some comic rapport but their styles are too much at odds for it to seem effortless. They work too hard for the few laughs they get volleying insults at each other.

Fallon trades too often on the goofy personas he trotted out for so many years on SNL, and then wants us to accept him as a real person.

Latifah's stunt doubles and stunt drivers have almost as much screen time as she does as the taxi winds through the streets of New York.

The stunt driving is impressive and several of the sequences are dazzling as cars careen down the streets, fly through the air or swerve between other vehicles.

Taxi is a rough, uneven ride for the audience as well as Belle's passengers.

(This film is rated PG)

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