User:The Dunkman/sandbox/Pink Panther

The Pink Panther is a 2006 American mystery comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and produced by Robert Simonds, based on the 1964 film and the franchise of the same name. The film follows Jacques Clouseau, a bumbling inspector who is assigned to solve the murder of a famous football coach and the theft of the famous Pink Panther diamond.

Plot
When the coach of a French soccer team is killed, his ring featuring the legendary Pink Panther diamond goes missing. Luckily, Chief Inspector Dreyfus has a plan: assign his most intelligent, most driven officers to track down the thieves in secret, while publicly assigning the bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau as head of the case. Clouseau seems hopeless, until his various mistakes and misjudgments miraculously put him on the real killer's trail.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The humor, while kinda funny, isn't as great nor funny as the original, as it mostly consists of mean spirited humor (like the part where an old handicapped man goes backwards way too fast) or toilet humor (like the scene where Clouseau farts in the "soundproof" room in the Xania's soundstage).
 * 2) Steve Martin, who at least tries to do a decent job, is severely miscasted as the Inspector Clouseau, as he gives off random gibberish and words that doesn't make any sense at all, not to mention, the film's acting is pretty bad, especially Beyoncé Knowles' performance as Xania.
 * 3) Despite being rated PG, the film cannot decide if it tries to be as family friendly or slightly adult than the franchise as the film has a countless amount of onscreen deaths and even a scene where the football coach gets shot by a dart on his neck.
 * 4) While the scene where Clouseau says "I want to have a hamburger" is actually pretty funny, it somewhat feels like it was added for filler due to the scene going on for over 3-5 minutes.
 * 5) The scene where Clouseau destroys the apartment room's bathroom is very disturbing and out of place in Pink Panther related media, and would've been better if it was used in an animated movie, instead of a Pink Panther film, also the effects in that scene also looks more GameCubeish.
 * 6) Apparently, the reason as to why the film is inconsistent with the film's tone is because the film originally was meant to be much more adult than the original, and was also gonna be directed by Ivan Reitman and star Mike Meyers, in fact, the film was even scheduled to be released on August 5, 2005, but Sony was dissatisfied with the film's "raunchy tone", thus causing the movie to be heavily edited and key scenes to be removed to be more family friendly, even though the franchise is known for being quite adult despite the PG rating received at the time, not to mention, another reason for the delay was also due to Mike Meyers' film "The Cat in The Hat" underperformed at the box office while Steve Martin's "Cheaper By The Dozen" was a box office success, thus causing the director and actor to be replaced with Shawn Levy and Steve Martin.
 * 7) It contains product placement as well, such as product placements for Dell TV, and the car where Clouseau drives is actually the Smart Fortwo Red Car.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Unlike most films based of classic comedies, this film at least tries to remain as faithful to the original franchise, by having the classic theme used and the animated credits bending animated using cel animation (with a tint of digital animation) and the jokes being inspired by the original films, like the fart scene as mentioned above, which is inspired from the fart scene in Revenge of The Pink Pather.
 * 2) While miscast, at least Steve Martin tries a decent job as Inspector Clouseau.
 * 3) Pretty good directing from Shawn Levy, which is a massive improvement from Cheaper By The Dozen, another film directed by Shawn Levy that also stars Steve Martin.

Reception
The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics and fans of the franchise alike with criticism for its humor, and the acting but praised for its soundtrack and trying to remain as faithful to the original films. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a "rotten" rating of 21% based on 143 reviews and an average rating of 4.11/10 critical consensus reads: "Though Steve Martin is game, the particulars of the Inspector Clouseau character elude him in this middling update".

Roger Ebert gave the film one and a half of four stars saying "There are moments that are funny in a mechanical way, as when Clouseau causes a giant world globe to roll out of an office and into the street, and it turns up much later to crash into a bicycle racer. But at every moment in the movie, I was aware that Peter Sellers was Clouseau, and Steve Martin was not. I hadn't realized how thoroughly Sellers and Edwards had colonized my memory. Despite Sean Connery I was able to accept the other James Bonds, just as I understand that different actors might play Hamlet. But there is only one Clouseau, and zat ees zat."

Despite the negative reception from critics, the film has somewhat gained a cult following from audiences and the fanbase, with YouTuber Hats Off Entertainment finding it to be enjoyable.

Trivia

 * In November of 2020, a reboot from the director of mh:greatetsmovies:Sonic the Hedgehog was announced and will be a hybrid unlike the this film and the original 1964 film.

Videos
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