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Rent The Pink Panther 2 on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV, or buy it on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV.
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When the world's greatest treasures, including the Pink Panther diamond, are stolen, only one man can solve the mystery: Clouseau (Steve Martin). Together with his partner Ponton (Jean Reno) and a team of international detectives, the bumbling detective must catch the thief and retrieve the artifacts -- without causing too much collateral damage.
The problem here, as it was in the previous one with Steve Martin, is that there isn't a firm enough hand in the director's chair to really make the movie as good as it could have been. That said it still isn't the trainwreck the reviews imply it is and I challenge you to find anything as funny as the scenes between Martin and Tomlin in any of the Pink Panther movies released from 1978-1993.
Super Reviewer
Jul 11, 2018
Sometimes, when I watch movies based on other, older movies, I have no idea what how to compare it to the original movie(s) it is based on because I haven't seen them myself. So, obviously, I can't comment on films I haven't seen and hope to maintain any sort of credibility. When it comes to the Pink Panther, however, I'm casually knowledgeable. Out of the five movies Peter Sellers plays Inspector Clouseau in, I've seen four of them. The only one I haven't seen is the original Pink Panther and, in that movie, Clouseau is a supporting character. You may have noticed that I didn't include Trail of the Pink Panther in here simply because that film, shot after Peter Sellers' death, uses cut footage from the previous films and flashbacks. So, in my opinion, I don't consider it part of the Pink Panther canon and most people don't, to be fair. Anyway, I think we should talk about Sellers for a second and just how tremendous of a performer he was. Despite the fact that, essentially, every film in the franchise (minus the one where Dreyfus becomes a super-villain with his own league of super villains) is very similar in tone and execution, Sellers' performance made it so that each and every one of those movies ended up being very entertaining. At least to me it was. We all know Inspector Clouseau is a bumbling, stumbling fool, who caused chaos everywhere he went and Sellers embodied that character perfectly. There's no one else, in my mind, that should have ever played a role. There's a big but in all of this (sorry for the play on words). And that but is that if anyone else should ever play this character, and I were given all these actors to choose from, Steve Martin would be the one that I would go for 9 times out of 10. I really would. And this is knowing nothing about these Martin Pink Panther movies, other than their reputations (which isn't great, of course). The first reboot with Martin wasn't available on Prime, so I went with this one instead. I don't think there's any sort of arc that I missed out because I skipped the first one. This isn't Breaking Bad. Anyway, with that being said, having now seen Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, I can safely say that Martin did not do a good job as Inspector Clouseau in the slightest. At first I thought it was because Martin has, pretty much, made a career out of being the smart, sarcastic, but lovable, jackass that, essentially, asking him to play a character that, for all intents and purposes, is an idiot was too much for him. But then I remembered that Martin was in My Blue Heaven, and his character wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed either. His character is not as buffoonish as Clouseau is in this movie, but he's not exactly Stephen Hawking. So I've discarded that theory. The next one I have in mind is more probable. And that is the fact that Martin had to step into Peter Sellers' massive shoes proved to be too daunting of a task for someone as talented as Martin is. In My Blue Heaven, there was no pressure. With the Pink Panther, there's definitely a lot pressure. And I'm certain that this pressure was more internal than external. I'm certain that Martin is quite familiar with Sellers' work and knew that it wouldn't be easy to step into his shoes and play the role quite as effectively. I'll be honest, I never expected Steve Martin's performance to reach even half of the effectiveness of Sellers' performance as the character. But I'm still genuinely surprised that Steve Martin didn't even reach 25% effectiveness as the character. Obviously, it doesn't help that the movie is really quite unfunny. But the thing about Martin's performance that's so off is that he seems to be trying so fucking hard to be funny. As if he's overcompensating for something. And that's a shame because, honestly, Steve Martin is a natural when it comes to comedy. This guy can't help but be funny, he doesn't even have to try to be funny and he's funny. I think it should be clear that I'm a fan of the guy and I have been for a really long time. I'm more familiar with his filmography than I am with that of Sellers, that's just fact. This movie, no matter how you slice it, is just bad. There's certainly some funny bits here and there. Like when Clouseau and Pepperidge (Alfred Molina) have a deduct-off, where they deduce things about the other. It's obviously a dick-measuring contest between the two, but it's one of the funniest bits of the entire movie. Clouseau being sent to manners training for his inappropriate and suggestive comments about women and for being racially insensitive to his Japanese counterpart in this international dream team of investigators. These work mostly because Martin gets to play off of Lily Tomlin and their exchanges are also very entertaining. Just two veteran actors doing what they do best. Other than that, however, there's very little else that I remember. Some unfunny slapstick/gags and poorly-written jokes defending Clouseau as some brilliant detective just before he does something idiotic. It's just not funny. And, to prove a point, I'll just list the cast here. Steve Martin (duh), Alfred Molina, Emily Mortimer, Andy Garcia, JOHN CLEESE, Jean Reno, Lily Tomlin, JEREMY FUCKING IRONS. Is there anyone else that I'm missing? I mean, all of these incredibly talented people under one roof and you can't get anything better than a star and a half movie? That's how you know you messed up. When you have all of these insanely talented people and you can't do absolutely anything of value with them. I'm sure there's been many movies throughout history that wasted its cast, but, in recent memory, I don't think I've seen one as bad as this one was in mishandling its cast. Just, how is it possible? The narrative is nothing to speak of. It's just there to get Clouseau to get to the next set-piece or a big slapstick moment. And you could say that the original movies were structured that way as well. But, at the very least, those movies had a funny a script and a committed lead performance from Peter Sellers. Though, to be fair, Steve Martin was certainly committed to the role, it's just that he wasn't any good at it. I've seen worse movies, particularly recently (Stepfather 2 was worse than this), but I'm really disappointed in this. I don't know what I was expecting, to be honest. I wanted to be entertained. That's, deep down, why anyone watches movies to begin with. They want to be entertained. I don't know if I expected this to be a good movie, but I expected something better than what we ended up getting. This is a very bad movie and I wouldn't recommend it. The old Pink Panther movies still exist and I'll take solace in that fact. That's what fans of the old movies are gonna have to do, because this movie provides nothing of what you loved. Umm, yea, don't watch this.
Even worse than the first remake, this time they not only repeated the jokes from the first film, but they also relied on cheap slapsticks and racial stereotypes to fuel the dying flame. I had nothing but contempt for this film, completely unnecessary and should've joined the alliance of Z movies.
Super Reviewer
Jun 26, 2013
Inspector Clouseau is on the case once again in The Pink Panther 2. When a notorious thief known as The Tornado comes out of retirement a crack team of Europe's top investigators is assembled to catch him, with Inspector Clouseau leading the charge. Steve Martin, Jean Reno, and Emily Mortimer return, and are joined by Andy Garcia, John Cleese, and Alfred Molina. The slapstick comedy is way overdone, and there's no subtlety to it. Still, some of the ridiculousness is just too funny. The Pink Panther 2 isn't as good as the first film, but it delivers plenty of laughs.
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