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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 10.53%
Worth A Look: 22.37%
Average: 10.53%
Pretty Bad: 26.32%
Total Crap: 30.26%
7 reviews, 34 user ratings
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| Pink Panther, The (2006) |
by William Goss
"Bad Kitty"
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Early on in 'The Pink Panther,' Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin) arrives at the Parisian police headquarters and attempts to parallel park his vehicle. As expected, he collides with neighboring cars, but instead of doing it a few times and calling it quits, Clouseau continues several additional times until finally coming to a stop. Maybe somebody should have given the filmmakers a clue as to where the line lies between funny and frustrating, because that scene just about sums up the entire remake, which takes rather routine humor and exaggerates it to a groan-inducing degree.Police chief Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) is the Susan Lucci of crimefighting, a seven-time nominee and runner-up to receive the prestigious Medal of Honor. In an effort to secure a win this time around, he assigns the incompetent Clouseau to investigate (and hopefully botch) the high-profile case of a slain soccer coach and the subsequent theft of the titular jewel, so that Dreyfus can solve the case himself and claim all the glory.
In a stunning twist, music superstar Beyoncé Knowles appears as (gasp!) the pop star / prime suspect in the murder of her boyfriend, and gets in a song or two while failing to maintain any residual popularity that may have remained from her roles in 2002’s Austin Powers: Goldmember and 2003’s The Fighting Temptations. The chronically stoic Jean Reno embarrasses himself as Clouseau’s sidekick, and no one can blame Emily Mortimer for picking up a paycheck with such an indie-heavy résumé as the detective's secretary. Kline remains as little more than a victim of his own circumstance, taking his French Kiss accent around the block once more as the audience wonders what they might have watched instead had he filled the lead role.
This leaves poor Steve Martin, who flails about in the most drastic attempts to milk humor from a script utterly deprived of comedic sensibility. No one expects him to fill Sellers’ shoes, and he makes no apparent effort to even respect his chief predecessor, let alone make the role his own. For example, take the disposable scene in which a dialect coach tries to help Clouseau pronounce “hamburger” with an American accent. Martin repeatedly butchers the word until an initially weak joke transforms into an increasingly irritating annoyance. Then again, it doesn’t help that the scene goes on for about twice the ideal length, for which Martin isn’t entirely to blame, for he shares credit for the screenplay with Len Blum (Stripes), and together with director Shawn Levy (Cheaper by the Dozen), the trio has no idea when to let up. Besides the numbing repetition of each joke and every gag, they get away with a surprising amount of sexual innuendo for a family-friendly PG rating. Such disregard for the target audience is somewhat bothersome, but even if included in a PG-13 cut, those diversions fit in quite awkwardly amongst the remaining ‘humor.’The sole inspired comedic moment comes in the form of a Clive Owen cameo, in which he plays as a pseudo-Bond and spends exactly one scene to show that franchise’s producers what they missed out on. Not only is it the cleverest idea Levy and Martin can muster, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. However, such an appearance deserves to belong in a much better movie than this floundering farce.
link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=13936&reviewer=409
originally posted: 02/14/06 16:19:27
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USA
10-Feb-2006 (PG)
DVD: 13-Jun-2006
UK
17-Mar-2006
Australia
09-Mar-2006
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