I’m not a big fan of Hollywood remakes, or even sequels for that matter. But, because Steve Martin was portraying the legendary Peter Sellers character, Inspector Jacques Clouseau, I had to see this movie. I read up on how Martin would portray the character, part Sellers and partly his own interpretation. This was good. I saw the trailers. They were also highly amusing, but I hoped that they wouldn’t be the only bright spots in the movie. With Jean Reno at Martin’s side as the trusty side-kick Gendarme Gilbert Ponton who practically goes along with Clouseau’s ridiculous antics, I laughed my way through several scenes of this remake. I hate saying this but I have not seen the original Peter Sellers film, so it is hard for me to compare this film to that one. I can however break down the plot and perhaps you, the reader, can determine whether it is similar or not. I felt the flow of this movie was decent mainly because it compiled so many familiar faces such as Kevin Kline and Beyoncé Knowles. Another face I enjoyed was Emily Mortimer, who played the secretary role for Jacques Clouseau.

Okay, onto the plot and its main points. A famous soccer player gets murdered after celebrating the victory goal for France versus China. The Pink Panther diamond worn by him becomes “missing”. In order for Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) to win the award for best policeman, he assigns Clouseau to the murder case giving him full control. Martin
bumbles his way through the first half of the film using several sexual innuendos that were so nonchalant that a thirteen year old wouldn’t be able to pick up on what was being said. Steve Martin was fresh and vivid, bringing a plethora of charisma to the screen. The way he interacted with Kline, Reno, and Mortimer was priceless. There are many one liners that seemed so improvised and on the spot. It was highly amusing. I thoroughly felt that the ending was the best because Clouseau had been thrown off the case after a national embarrassment at the airport regarding what he had inside his pockets. Inspector Clouseau finally redeems himself and proves that he is worthy (somewhat) of being a police officer in
France.

Martin took the entire spotlight away from the other characters and this was his role to shine after financial grossing flops such as "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" and "Shopgirl". I cannot take anything away from Seller’s portrayal of the goofy but cynical almost Kramer-esque (from Seinfeld) Clouseau, but I will definitely say that Martin will be compared to him in all aspects. I am going to immediately go rent the original film and compare it myself, actors, comedy and story wise. However, the ending showed that Martin, at age 61, is at the peak of his career. I loved him as a stand up comedian in the 70’s and especially enjoyed films such as “The Jerk” and “The Man with Two Brains”, but I can only hope that he
takes on better roles in original films than Hollywood remakes. Beyoncé was extremely good on the eyes and did not hog the spotlight with many lines. If she had done that then I
would have claimed The Pink Panther to be “The Stink Panther” at the most.

It wasn’t necessarily Martin who annoyed me, but someone did. Perhaps it was the fact that this movie had more damn commercials in the beginning than any other film I have seen in theaters before. I did not enjoy sitting through this torture and could recall the good old days when it was 15 minutes of pure previews. Nowadays it’s only 10 minutes of commercials and 5 quick minutes of previews for crap-tacular animated movies. Aside from that, I was unimpressed by the other characters in this film. I felt that Cline and Reno could have upped their game and helped take the weight off Martin. Although I am disappointed with the lackluster performance of the supporting cast, I won’t take away from the flow of the film.

With Martin at the helm portraying the bumbling yet very comical Jacques Clouseau, he essentially steals he spotlight throughout the entire film. Although the performances by the supporting cast were lackluster to say the least, "The Pink Panther" remake was fresh, energetic, and comical from beginning to end.

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