The Pink Panther (2006)

Really Surprised!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

After a victory over the Chinese the French football coach, Yves Gluant, is murdered and the 'Pink Panther' diamond ring is no longer on his finger. Chief Inspector Dreyfus believes this will provide an opportunity to finally earn the Medal of Honour. To this end he brings in Jacques Clouseau, possibly the least competent policeman in France so that once Clouseau has totally failed he will be able to take over the case and look especially good. He promotes Clouseau to the rank of inspector and assigns officer Gilbert Ponton to work with Clouseau and report back to him. As they investigate various suspects emerges.I must confess that as I fan of the classic Peter Sellers films I wasn't too hopefully about this; perhaps because of those low expectations I ended up being pleasantly surprised. It might not be a classic but it provided more than enough laugh out loud moments. Steve Martin clearly isn't Sellers but once one has got over that his performance is enjoyable. The thing that stands out is the quality of the people in other roles; most notable Jean Reno who is great as Ponton; a far more subtle role. There are also solid performances from Emily Mortimer and Kevin Kline as romantic interest Nicole Durant and Dreyfus respectively. Singer Beyoncé Knowles also impresses Gluant's girlfriend. The gags are mostly fairly slapstick; I particularly enjoyed the running gag where his actions kept causing cycling accidents. The conclusion is a bit of a surprise as it suggests that this Clouseau is actually more competent than we might have thought. Overall I thought this was funny enough if you can divorce it from the Sellers films.

As a huge fan of Peter Sellers and his comedic genius, I can honestly say that Steve Martin's performance in the new Pink Panther movies is the biggest travesty I've ever witnessed in my entire life. From the constantly smug expression on his face that is painfully forced, to his excruciatingly strained attempt to say "hamburger", which by the way he manages to butcher so badly that at some point he's just saying random gibberish, to his unbelievable idiocy and lack of any sense, and so much more, there isn't a single funny moment in this entire mockery.I can't believe they made a second one. Someone please pay him to never make another one again. Leave Peter Seller's legacy alone and don't tarnish the Pink Panther name any further, please. This was the hardest movie to watch, the sheer idiocy is on its own level, and not in a funny way at all. If I could give it a lower rating than 1, then I would. "Awful" is just the start of how I'd describe this movie.

Before I went to see a movie, I knew it was going to be a comedy, a criminal plot. So I'm not expecting a detectives investigate. I wanted to relax, laugh and spend time. But the movie can only spend your time. The movie has a lot of celebrities such as Steve Martin, Jean Reno and Beyonce ... Jean Reno is a great actor, but he does not correspond to this role. While Steve Martin is doing well in this role. The story is nothing special. What I didn't like about the movie is bad humor. Humor boils down to the fact that Jacques Clouseau (played by Steve Martin)embarrass you in any situation and behaves like retard. It's not funny. Jacques Clouseau character was so irritating that I wanted to give my view. Maybe this will be an interesting movie for children of 10 years. I do not recommend this movie unless you do not like this kind of humor.

Moviegoers whose notion of physical comedy ends with Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler will probably roar with laughter over Steve Martin's new version of "The Pink Panther." Viewers with slightly longer memories will ponder just when Martin got so unfunny.I can't think of any comedy series that is in less need of resurrection than the "Pink Panther" movies. The very first one (1964) is utterly hilarious, with Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, so obsessed with finding a jewel thief –- and so frustrated by the lack of affection from his wife, who turns out to be two-timing him with the thief –- that he falls all over himself in frustration.Unfortunately, "Panther's" original sequel, "A Shot in the Dark" (1965), established the template for the rest of the Clouseau comedies: a clueless, accent-hindered incompetent who never wants to admit that he destroys everything in his path. Writer-director Blake Edwards beat the formula to death for a half-dozen more movies (some released long after Sellers' death). And now Martin does his best to revive a corpse one more time.This is supposedly a prequel to the Edwards/Sellers movies, but it follows the same tired pattern. A famous pink diamond resembling a panther is stolen. French Chief Inspector Dreyfus (et tu, Kevin Kline?) hires Clouseau as a red herring to cover up his own detective work, but Clouseau unwittingly scores major points against his scheming boss.So much for plot. The rest of the movie is the kind of tired physical comedy that endlessly unravels like so much cheap fabric. Once, there was the like of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, whose physical humor expressed their personalities and who took their own falls. By contrast, look at every single Clouseau pratfall in this movie. There's a shot of Martin starting to do harm to himself, a shot of a stuntman dressed up like Steve Martin and taking a tremendous fall, followed by a shot of Martin nonchalantly regaining his balance.Has Martin forgotten his own movie-comedy history? Like the silent greats, his physical comedy used to be the expression of an otherworldly, ethereal comedian, culminating in what I thought was his finest movie, "L.A. Story" (1991). But over the years, he's been too busy making what one cynic has called "mansion comedies." You know -– Steve Martin needs another mansion, so he makes another dumb slapstick movie.As for the rest of the new "Panther," poor Jean Reno plays Martin's unwilling sidekick as though he is wondering what happened to his own movie career. Only Beyonce Knowles –- in a surprising nod to modernity –- makes much of an impression as, natch, a sultry singer.