Movie critics are dreadful and moronic lot. They like to slam good movies and praise stuff that nobody wants to see. On a rare occasion they'll praise something that's actually watchable but it's rare for the watchable set and the critically acclaimed set to overlap.
"Pink Panther 2" is not in that overlapping area. Professional movie critics have all seen the original movies, loved some, hated others, and then fused the whole mass into something to compare the new Steve Martin movies to1. You can't do that. Partially because the first one was a nearly serious detective movie with a little clumsiness mixed in, the next couple played to the slapstick a lot more, and the last one was basically a clips episode. The new movies play to the slapstick but aren't as serious about it as the classic movie were. The critics hated it, but Yummy and I loved it.
That said, this movie did include a few elements of the classic movies that I thought the first missed. Most notable of these was the kung-fu battle that destroys a bunch of furniture.
In this latest movie Steve Martin returns as the comically clumsy Inspector Clouseau. A thief has been stealing prominent items from all over Europe and leaving a card behind. A team of detectives from these various countries has been put together to find the thief with Clouseau as the leader. They start their investigation at the site of the theft of the Pink Panther diamond by contaminating the crime scene and various detectives trying to out romance or out detect Clouseau. The investigation takes them to a variety of sites with each involving the other detectives detecting and Clouseau looking the fool. Naturally, in the end he solves the case and makes the rest look foolish.
It was nice to see Steve Martin doing the kinds of roles that made him famous (i.e. not another damn drama). It was nice to see Lily Tomlin again. I hadn't seen her in forever. Looking over IMDB it looks like I was just watching the wrong stuff.
I do recommend this movie. I recommend taking your kids. I will be getting this on DVD.
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1I admit, I've done the same with the "Transformers" movies. But, dammit, that is not Optimus Prime, that is not Megatron, and they all look more like walking bags of broken glass than what I used to watch on Saturday mornings and kept in my toybox!
1 comment:
My favorite part? When Clouseau was dressed as the Pope :-)
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