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Post by Clouseau on Jun 15, 2006 16:58:45 GMT
The Pink Panther (2006)Get a clue!Plot Notes - not a remake, not a sequel, not a prequel... as i have contended since the first time i saw this film in theaters back in February, this movie serves as a reboot for the Pink Panther film series... the character of Clouseau is completely different, the Pink Panther diamond has a different heritage, and the film's story and details don't fit in at all with the continuity (which was frail, admittedly) of the previous films... still, as a murder/theft mystery featuring the antics of a bumbling French detective who somehow succeeds despite all odds, it's a hilarious movie! better, at least, than the previous four entries in the PP film series, easily! Cast Notes: - Steve Martin - although Martin's Clouseau is markedly different from Sellers' character, he's still quite "foo-nay" in his own respect... sure, his accent is different, his mannerisms are different, his clothes are different... but Steve Martin is not Peter Sellers, and i appreciate the fact that Martin made the character his own, rather than trying only to imitate Sellers' performance... having a reinvented Clouseau also allows for some fresh jokes, which is nice... sure, Sellers was classic, but you can only do the same thing so many times before it starts getting old, know what i mean? and naysayers wouldn't have been happy if Martin just tried to impersonate Sellers, either, because they'd then have claimed that it lacked originality... there were gonna be critics of Martin's portrayal no matter what, so i'm glad he went the more interesting direction with the character...
- Kevin Kline - Kline's Dreyfus was interesting, and - like Steve Martin's Clouseau - he was a bit of a departure from the same-named character of the previous films... the first time i saw the film, i wished they'd used him a bit more, but Dreyfus (with the exception of TPPSA) has never had an enormous amount of screen time, and after seeing the deleted/extended scenes on the DVD, i'm kinda glad they cut things the way they did... also, part of what always made me love Dreyfus is his bout with insanity, and they didn't really touch that in this film... hopefully, if there is a sequel, they'll play a bit more of that...
- Beyoncé Knowles - an international pop star whose love life seems to make all the headlines... what an incredible stretch it must have been for Beyoncé to play that role! i wonder where she got the inspiration for her character! ...no, all joking aside, i thought Beyoncé did a pretty good job as Gluant's girlfriend, Xania... i was actually surprised at how good she was, since i've never really thought of her as much of an actress... very classy performance, though, IMO...
- Jean Reno - Reno's Ponton was supposed to be a mixture of Hercule and Cato, but while he had plenty of screen time, he was sorely under-used... he had his few funny moments, but i wonder if he would even consider appearing in a sequel, if he'd just be doing the same job, and i can't say i'd blame him if he turned it down...
- Emily Mortimer - i've heard a lot of people going on and on about how great Mortimer's character, Nicole, was; but i, personally, wasn't that impressed with her... Mortimer's acting was fine, and i liked the character for a little while, but i started getting tired of her by the end of the film, is all...
- Clive Owen - winking to fans who wanted him to play James Bond in the forthcoming Casino Royale (2006), and nodding in tribute to Peter Sellers, who actually did play James Bond in Casino Royale (1967), Clive Owen - as Nigel Boswell, Agent 006 - is impressive as the man who is "one short of the big time"... his brief time on screen leaves you wanting more, and is definitely one of the film's highlights... *it's a shameless, biased plug for one of my all-time favorite actors, but who can blame me?!*
Animated Titles - although the sequence featured in the film is not the original sequence director Sean Levy wanted to use (the other sequence can be seen on the SE DVD), it was a wonderful nod to the classic DePatie-Freleng titles of old... the animation fits the music perfectly, taking advantage of all the accents and pace changes... the Clouseau character has been updated to look more like Steve Martin, but they did the same thing when they made him look more like Peter Sellers in the 70s... also, the Panther was in classic form, and i appreciated the little touches they threw in in the way he walked and moved... all-in-all, it was an excellent sequence, and very much lived up to my expectations of what a Pink Panther title sequence should be... Music - although i have long been a fan of the Pink Panther series, this was the first film for which i actually went out and bought the soundtrack... Christophe Beck's score is a wonderful blend of styles, ranging from the classic jazz feel of the older films to a modern "techno" style, and it's gotten quite a bit of air time on my personal CD player... it also complimented the film fairly well the whole way through, with only one or two moments when i thought it didn't quite fit... i should also note that while Beyoncé's "Check On It", which plays over the end credits, doesn't really fit in with the rest of the film, IMO, the song she performs during the climax scene of the film, "Woman Like Me", seemed to be almost perfect, both for her character and for the feel of the film... over all, the music for this film was very classy, IMO, which is so much of what the Pink Panther is all about!
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Post by Dreyfus on Jun 15, 2006 18:21:03 GMT
Nice review. I agree with you on most things. Beyonce was ok but not great.
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Post by Clouseau on Jun 15, 2006 18:44:04 GMT
Beyonce was ok but not great. oh, i'm not saying she was phenominal or anything... she was just significantly better than i expected her to be, if that makes sense...
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Post by Dreyfus on Jun 15, 2006 19:30:36 GMT
Yes her performance was a lot better than her performance as Foxxy in Goldmember
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Post by Dreyfus on Aug 3, 2006 20:10:32 GMT
I watched this last night and watched the deleted scenes for the first time. There were a few ver funny ones. I like the bit where Clouseau is at the stands on the Football/soccer pitch and twiddles a screw, then slides down. I also liked in Dreyfus's office with the arch.
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Post by Clouseau on Aug 3, 2006 21:51:09 GMT
yeah, i thought most of the deleted scenes were pretty funny, but at the same time, i could kinda understand why they were cut...
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Post by georgelytton on Aug 4, 2006 21:14:47 GMT
I watched it.
Let me say, at first, that I have been a Movie Pink Panther fan, all my life. As far as I can remember, I loved the PP movies - all of them. Even the stinky ones.
Before I saw this movie, I thought that the other ones were bad. Now, I know they're better than others, because they are not like this one!
I didn't like it.
I didn't like Kline as Dreyfus. He seemed uninterested in the part, and he clearly didn't fit the material.
I didn't like Jean Reno. He didn't fit the material.
And most of all... Steve Martin. There is, an excellent actor, who terribly mis-cast. Its not like he even tries to be his own or Sellers, he does not fit the material. He is NOT Clouseau. Not in any stretch of the imagination.
Clouseau was the result of Sellers' input into the character and Edwards' input as well. None of them is here.
The whole film feels tired, self-righteous and, well, unfunny. There was nothing funny about the film, at all. I laughed only a couple of times (the fart in the recording studio made the most laugh for me).
Clouseau, with all due respect (sorry not to point out this forum is great, BTW), this film cannot possibly be better than the last four. And certainly not REVENGE - tired or not, Sellers could play Clouseau in his sleep.
I think there are three big problems with this film - Direction, Story and Cast. The whole film was shot terribly, the story was weak for a reboot, and it was terribly, terribly, terribly miscast. I always said it back in 1988, A FISH CALLED WANDA, that Kevin Kline would've been the perfect Clouseau in a reboot. And after FATHER OF THE BRIDE, I was convinced that Steven Martin would've been the ideal Dreyfus. You see, Martin can play intelligent characters with obsessive tendancies that are often paranoid. And Kline has proven with WANDA that he can play someone who succeeds in his target, despite his idiocy, which the whole point of Clouseau's character!
I was terrified when I heard the news of the casting back a few years ago. But I thought I could give the film a chance. Now, I realize my gut feeling was wrong.
Anyway, good for you that you all enjoyed this film. I didn't. But, if we all agreed, it'd be boring, wouldn't it....
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Post by Clouseau on Aug 6, 2006 2:08:37 GMT
well believe it or not, i've considered the idea of Kline playing Clouseau, myself, but i've never been too sure of it... i cannot, on the other hand, even begin to picture Martin as Dreyfus... the only problem with Kline as Dreyfus, i think, is that i can't imagine him doing Lom's wink and laugh like he always used to do when he heard Clouseau's name... but then, i like the idea that the characters in TPP06 are different from the characters in the previous series, because it brings out the idea of doing new things with the characters... as i've said before, it all just seems kinda tired from Revenge on, because we've already seen most of the gags a million times, and it just feels like they're doing the same thing all over again... and while Sellers would, i think, have been more willing to give Clouseau a proper send-off, i can't imagine Edwards ever really letting go or allowing much change with the series (much evidenced by Trail, Curse, and Son)... so to come back all these years later and reinvent the characters, give them new quirks, etc., and put them in new scenarios - it's all very fresh, to me... and while TPP06 may not have been the fall-out-of-your-seat-laughing comedy some had hoped for, i did find much of it to be funny - even re-watchably funny - and if nothing else, i think it shows serious potential for things to come... of course, i've always been a Steve Martin fan, and perhaps my own sense of humor is a bit left-of-center, so maybe that explains some of it... who knows? but my recommendation would be to give it a little time to settle in, and then maybe revisit this film in a month or two and see if you don't like it any better... a lot of films can be like that... ...but we all have our own tastes, so if you never like it, i guess that's just the way it'll go! i'm not a huge fan of Son, so maybe you and me are just even!
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Post by georgelytton on Aug 6, 2006 11:17:12 GMT
Well, to be honest, I hated Martin as Clouseau in this film. Its not only because he's playing a character totally owned by Sellers (its like Heath Ledger trying out Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone - its absurd!), but also that he genuinely annoying! I couldn't stand him! I wanted to fast-forward his scenes so to just not watch him anymore. And when that happens, you've lost the concept, all along. I mean, no matter his insane stupidity, Clouseau was always likeable and sympathetic, even when the character was truly egotistical and selfish. I don't get that from Martin. All I see is a ridiculously written character, played ridiculously.
I really hated, hated, hated Martin's Clouseau.
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Post by brandon on Aug 28, 2006 2:32:14 GMT
I liked the film a lot. hated how there was no Panther animation at the end of the film though. That made the ending a great letdown. and Bob Kurtz confirmed to me that the producers specifically did not want animation at the end. Stupid, mindless producers.
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Post by Clouseau on Aug 28, 2006 12:33:21 GMT
to be honest, i would like to have seen an animated end title sequence, BUT i didn't particularly miss it, you know? like, i wasn't sitting there waiting for one, even though i know they'd done them on several of the previous films...
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Post by Dreyfus on Aug 28, 2006 15:31:55 GMT
To be honest, it had not struck me that there was not an animated end title sequence. I wasn't expecting one , so I never missed it.
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Post by tournier on Jan 28, 2008 7:02:06 GMT
I thought it was okay, probably a two star movie considering the weak ending.
I love Steve Martin, and was massively relieved when I heard he'd been chosen to play the part rather than Mike Myers. There are two big problems with this Inspector Clouseau that Martin can't do anything about, though.
The biggest mistake to me was the attempt to make Clouseau sympathetic halfway through. Maybe if you were succeeding tremendously with every other aspect of the film, you could try making the audience feel sorry for Clouseau, but he's not really a character that needs our sympathy. He winds up getting better than he deserves in every movie, and depression doesn't work well with this character.
The other problem is that, whether you compare him to Sellers or not, Steve is way too old to be the young, starting-out version of the character.
Using Kevin Kline as Clouseau seems like a brillaint idea to me, but not with this script. I thought Kline did well, but his Dreyfus was too understated to register like Lom did in his scenes with Sellers. He did better than Jean Reno's character, though, who didn't really register at all for me
One big problem was that the script was a little too juvenile. The deleted opening scene seemed like the perfect way to start the film, but to go straight into a 'bumbling Clouseau' montage was a mistake - making things too cartoony, too quickly.
I thought production values were very good. Some scenes were very funny (I loved the press conference), and many more were funny enough, even though they weren't side-slappers. Some scenes were funny for a moment, before being dragged on forever.
I really wanted to like this film, and was fairly happy with it. Going in with low expectations helped, though
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Post by panther67 on Aug 4, 2008 18:40:38 GMT
I was unsure about this one, as I was about the other non-Sellers titles. But after I bought all the others, I went ahead and got this one too, to complete the collection.
I watched this with my father. He's not an original PP fan, but can appreciate the older titles.
Anyway, I was happy with this one. I found it funny in a few spots. I'm not a laugh out loud type, and most comedy doesn't affect me like that, but a few times I did.
Martin wasn't bad, nor did I think the rest of the actors bad. If I had to complain about anyone, it would be Kline's character. Why would he hide behind that curtain?
But overall, I liked this, and I think Martin is the best non-Sellers Clouseau, well, only Arkin really played that role as well. But I like PP(06) WAY WAY more than Son, and much more than Curse, and Trail, and even better than IC.
I'd give it a thumbs up.
Carl
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