The Steve Martin Pink Panther Films
                
The Pink Panther (2006) - 6.0



Hard to understand what made Steve Martin want to exhume the Pink Panther franchise. The last one before this was the 1993 Son of the Pink Panther starring Roberto Benigni. That had been the ninth Inspector Clouseau - five of those with Peter Sellers alive, one after he wasn't, an obscure one made in 1968 and then two sad films trying to keep it alive.  Hollywood will kick a corpse till it begins putrefying if they can make money off of it.  But there was still a lot of affection for the character and video had made Seller's films something everyone had seen. MGM must have figured there was still a desire to see the character - and they were right. This film made oodles of money - twice the budget - even with critics slamming it like it was in a cage match. Steve Martin is a favorite of mine, but I have still avoided this one like a case of cooties. He wasn't edgy any longer as he had been early in his career even with the brilliant Bowfinger in 1999. Too many films like Cheaper by the Dozen, Father of the Bride and Bringing Down the House had made his films inessential viewing. It wasn't really till Only Murders in the Building that I got interested in him again.



For all the critics banging on this like a steel drum, I found it surprisingly funny. A barrel of gags that work, a good performance from Martin and his co-stars and a light good-natured feel. Nothing serious here folks. Martin isn't Sellers but close enough. Near the end, he has to take off his mask and my mind blanked out for a second and I expected to see Sellers under that mask. Once again, he drives Dreyfuss (Kevin Kline) into madness and his idiocy leads him to the killer. A moment of clarity by Clouseau that comes out of nowhere but was needed to finish the film. He doesn't have Cato with him this time (a cameo by Kwouk would have been nice), but he basically does the same gimmick with his subordinate except in reverse, but it never hits the heights as the Sellers-Kwouk fights did. 



It is an origin story. Clouseau is a police official in a small town in France gaining a reputation for his incompetence. When the coach of the French National football team - Jason Statham in a cameo - is murdered on the field and his large diamond ring called the Pink Panther stolen, Dreyfuss sees an opportunity for himself. He has been denied a national honor for years and if he can solve this case, he is sure he will get it. But first his plan is to put the most incompetent policeman in France in charge and when he fails, then he will step in and solve it. That man is of course Clouseau. The usual hijinks and pratfalls follow. He gets Jean Reno as his driver and assistant and he is terrific trying his best to keep a straight face as Clouseau bumbles along. His secretary is a nerdy but adorable Emily Mortimer and Beyoncé is beyond stunning as the girlfriend and suspect of the murdered coach. Maybe I was just in the right mood, but this hit my funny bone like a shooting gallery. Let's see how the sequel does.



The Pink Panther 2 (2009) - 5.5





This wasn't as good as the first Steve Martin Pink Panther film and it showed in the box office results. And like the first film, the critics generally hated it. It basically broke even and there was no appetite to continue the series. There are still some funny bits and pieces that cracked me up, but there are also parts that fall flat - in particular - and I hate to say this - the Lily Tomlin character who teaches political correctness to police officers and Clouseau is unteachable. At one point he refers to his Japanese colleague as "My yellow friend" - but for those who have seen the Sellers's movies - that is a wink at the audience as he always referred to Cato in that manner. In the 1960s it passed unnoticed - no longer. There is a fine cast around Martin - Jean Reno and Emily Mortimer return as the same characters - John Cleese replaces Keven Kline as Dreyfuss and the other detectives that are brought in to team up with Clouseau are Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina, Yuki Matsuzaki and the Bollywood beauty, Aishwarya Rai - an enormously popular actress in India. Jeremy Irons has a small role as does the great Johnny Hallyday.



Invaluable items are being stolen all over Europe - the Turin Shroud, the Pope's ring among them - and then yes, the Pink Panther diamond from a museum. A team of detectives is assembled to catch the thief who is called the Tornado and had been quiet for years but has returned. Dreyfuss is ordered to assign Clouseau to the Dream Team. He is of course a disaster - burns down a restaurant (again), falls off the Pope's balcony dressed as the Pope and humiliates France. He has a nice thing going with Mortimer that is very sweet and surprising. A woman that loves him.



There are a few set pieces that work well - the Pope one, having a kung fu rumble with two children, sneaking into a suspect's mansion and totally bumble about as his colleagues watch in horror on security cameras, the opening pre-credit sequence of him being dragged by a car and the final denouement when he accuses the thief and then chases the person. It is 90-minutes - it doesn't have the genius of Sellers in there, but it is good clean comedy with some laughs.  There was talk a few years back of a new Pink Panther, but perhaps it died a decent death. The Seller's films won't be topped.