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The Pink Panther, a review by RossRoy

Original Title: The Pink Panther Year: 2006 Country: United States Director: Shawn Levy Rating: PG Length: 93 Min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Surround Subtitles: English, French

What they say
When a star soccer coach is murdered and his priceless Pink Panther diamond stolen, France is in an uproar. Fortunately, Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin, 'Bowfinger', 'Cheaper by the Dozen') is on the case. He doesn't have a clue, but for Clouseau, that's just a minor detail. With his partner, Gilbert Ponton (Jean Reno, 'The Da Vinci Code', 'The Professional'), he careens from one misadventure to the next, leaving mayhem in his wake from the boulevards of Paris to the streets of New York. Will he seduce the pop diva, Xania (Beyoncé Knowles, 'Austin Powers: Goldmember')? Will he push Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Oscar® Winner Kevin Kline, 1988 Best Supporting Actor, 'A Fish Called Wanda') over the edge? Will he catch the killer and recover the diamond? With Inspector Clouseau, anything is possible.

My Thoughts
I was surprised by that. I didn't realise how slapstick it is. Not that I was expecting intelligent humour, but I didn't realise it was this much over the top. And I must say, this was not my cup of tea, so to speak. To me, one of the biggest problem here is that most, if not all, of the comedy is based around Clouseau's clumsiness. Now, I like scenes where a characters clumsiness creates comedy, but for a whole 90 minutes? It gets really irritating. And what makes it worse, if they reuse gags all over the movie. It's like had ideas to do a short, but had to stretch it to feature length by contract, and decided to rotate the few jokes they had, and redo them in different context over and over again.

So while I didn't hate it, it was a very forgettable 90 minutes. It is a disappointment.

Rating:

(From RossRoy's Random Viewings on May 31st, 2008)

Destry, a review by Antares

Destry (1954) 66/100 - Had I never saw the original made in 1939, I would have liked this and rated it better than I have. But you can't get the original out of your head. Audie Murphy knew he wasn't a great actor, and to ask him to play a role made famous by James Stewart was probably more daring and difficult for him, than his machine gun action in Holtzwihr which won him his Congressional Medal of Honor in 1945. So because it's pretty much a scene by scene remake of the original, by the same director, one can only compare performances. So, to start, Murphy doesn't do that bad of a job as Tom Destry. Like I mentioned earlier, if I had watched this first, I would have been impressed by how much he had grown as an actor in just six years. Brain Donlevy > Lyle Bettger, Bettger plays his usual slick, but in the end cowardly bad guy and he never comes across as anything but weak. Marlene Dietrich = Mari Blanchard, Dietrich is the better actress and her fight scene and final kiss scene with Destry are the highlights of the original. Blanchard gets kudos from me as a better singer and after reading about her struggles in her youth with polio, for being able to dance that well, having been afflicted and recovering on her own from that paralyzing disease. Charles Winninger > Thomas Mitchell, usually I really like Mitchell, but I've seen this kind of performance from him in the past, and it seemed old and stale. Samuel S. Hinds > Edgar Buchanan, I'm sorry, but Buchanan will always be Uncle Joe from Petticoat Junction, and Uncle Joe was an annoying character that I just can't get out of my mind when I see him in something other than the TV show. Mischa Auer >>> Wallace Ford, this was a no-brainer. Auer was the funniest part of the original and changing his character to a doctor, who is incredibly hen pecked just falls flat. Finally, the songs in the original fit the western town setting much better than the songs here. At times, I thought they would have been better suited for 50's burlesque house.

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on July 11th, 2020)

[Rerun Marathon] Spaced, a review by Tom

10/10

"There was a difference of opinion." - "Phantom Menace?" - "Yeah." 

(From [Rerun Marathon] Spaced on December 10th, 2007)