SYNOPSIS:
Steve Martin returns to the scene of the fun as the brilliant, bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau in this side-splitting slapstick comedy for the whole family! When legendary treasures from around the world are stolen, including the priceless Pink Panther diamond, Clouseau is assigned to a dream team of international detectives who are under pressure to bring the master thief to justice before he strikes again. Co-starring Jean Reno, Alfred Molina, Andy Garcia, Lily Tomlin and John Cleese, The Pink Panther 2 will steal your heart...and keep you laughing!
MOVIE REVIEW:
What a pity. This sequel to the 2006’s Steve Martin’s version of the bumbling inspector is an utter waste of talents and audience time.
Assembling a cast including veteran Fawlty Towers comedian John Cleese, Alfred 'Doc Ock' Molina, Andy 'The Untouchables' Garcia, Indian beauty Aishwarya Rai, an uncredited Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons and returning cast member Jean Reno and Emily Mortimer as Clouseau’s love interest Nicole, The Pink Panther 2 has a dream team of international detectives investigating a spate of worldwide burglaries involving a renowned thief dubbed Il Tornado.
The plotting is as dumb as Inspector Clouseau’s antics and it doesn’t take a second to realize who the culprit is and it sure doesn’t need this wonderful cast of actors to decipher. After all, this might be the first crime caper that never needs to spend the time on revealing the villain or litter the clues. And viola the villain is unraveled and mystery solved! Just another convenient excuse to tout it as a family friendly comedy.
While the first instalment has its fair share of truly engaging, laugh-out-loud moments, right here it has far more misses than hits. Martin who gets credited as one of the screenwriters seems to take the day off and sad to say except for a few ahem racial jokes, the dialogue on the whole are neither witty nor funny. The script tries hard to keep up the already dismal suspense level but this is often distracted by Clouseau’s repetitive visual physical (read: unfunny) gags.
Talking about physical comedy, nothing here matches the dynamic 'Viagra' sequence in the first which is unfortunate. Try as hard the filmmakers in conjuring a bottle-tossing gag and a chimney falling stunt but none manages a laugh or two unless you are eight years and below. Martin’s French accent starts to get on my nerves after Act I and I realized why the original helmer, Shawn Levy opted out of this project. I sincerely hope Martin should abandon the thoughts of another panther outing. What happen to that Steve Martin who gave us Roxanne and Three Amigos?
Obviously, I wasn’t tickled pink here.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 DVD consists of a 3 minutes Gag Reel which I guess the cast themselves will find more amusing than the audience. Drama is Easy, Comedy is Dangerous lasts 7 minutes and touches on how the stunts are coordinated and the slapstick (meant to be) sequences. The best feature goes to this one, Dream Team Like No Other which consists of 13 minutes of cast interview. For the record, none admit they are in for the paycheck though.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is passable but do not expect loud bass or fantastic surround effects. The visual is clear and vivid which in some ways betray the rather cheesy backdrops. Overall, the technical aspects fare much better than the movie itself.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
Posted on 19 June 2009
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