The Pink Panther 2: No Tooth, No Claw review
A brilliant set of actors absolutely without any scope to showcase what they are known for, a limp script that barely gives any scope for a few laughs and would make even Sajid Khan's Heyy Babyy seem like a masterclass in comedy filmmaking, a wafer thin plot - and a completely lost (or disinterested, depending on your viewpoint) Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. This is what sums up the latest installment of the Pink Panther series, The Pink Panther 2.
When you have Peter Sellers as your benchmark, definitely it is going to be a tough act to follow, even if you are Steve Martin. But then, Martin has of late seems to be losing the spark, and if you have nothing to work on, except seeking to be a faux Frenchman and then trying to speak your own mother tongue in a French accent to seem to be funny, you are treading on thin ice for sure.
In this Harald Zwart-directed Sony Pictures' spy comedy, Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Martin) is out to catch Il Tornado, a thief who has made life hell for all, by stealing such valuables as the Turin Shroud and the Pope's ring, not to speak of the Pink Panther, France's most-valuable, national diamond. Quite naturally, the bumbling Clouseau has to work with a team of international investigators - Gendarme Gilbert Ponton from France (Jean Reno), Sonia Solandres from India (Aishwarya Rai), Inspector Vicenzo Brancaleone from Italy (Andy GarcÃa), Chief Inspector Randall Pepperidge from Britain
(Alfred Molina) and Kenji Mazuto from Japan (Yuki Matsuzaki). Except Sonia, all others think Clouseau is only hampering their investigation, as they try to track down the elusive thief. Finally, and quite obviously, it is Clouseau who solves the case.
With a cast that has Reno, Garcia, Molina, Matsuzaki and Jeremy Irons, and with a character that has been made immortal by Peter Sellers, one would have expected that it would not only live up to but surpass the comic standards of the 2006 film that debuted Martin as the fumbling and bumbling French detective. But no, it's all a waste. Martin quite naturally is at the centre of action, and he has nothing much to act upon, pun intended. For the rest, it's almost like sleepwalking through bit parts. The gags are flat, the Clouseau punchlines are limp, and the action forced and sleepy.
Amidst all this, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, whose big Hollywood foray this was touted to be, looks like a lost citizen of the world. Yes, her role is longer than what it was for Mallika Sherawat in Jackie Chan's The Myth - the most recent exposure an Indian actress has got in a big international production - but placed against Aishwarya's performance in this, Sherawat's 10-minute action-filled role now looks like a lot of fun actually. Not that she got any help from the screenplay or Sonia's character graph, but even then, in front of the brilliant co-actors who stamp their presence even in those little windows they got in the drab screenplay, she sticks out like a real sore thumb, what with her expression-less expressions, so to say. And this, even though her character comes to the centre stage towards the latter part of the film. It is a definite big let down for anyone who had believed in all that PR drivel that this would mark the former Miss World's grand arrival in Hollywood.
The Pink Panther has lost its agility in this one. Give us the old-world brilliance of Sellers anytime, or a Steve Martin of the Three Amigos comic touch. If this is the way the Pink Panther is moving, it is time for it to become extinct.
Comments( 2 )
Hi Utpal. A good review here. I Saw
Hi Utpal. A good review here.
I Saw this film sometime back and must say that I was a fan of the original "Pink Panther" movies and saw all of them, which starred the late Peter Sellers as the bumbling, world famous, French detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau and Herbert Lom as his boss. I have also seen the 2006 version. But I think that the jokes and the gags were there and that Steve Martin did make good laughs, however, they were predicatble while in the original "Pink Panther" films, they were not - they just came at you out of the blue. That is waht made the originals so funny and especially Clousau (Peter Sellers) being on the scene, one knew staright away that disaster was looming. The question always was when and how? But in this one, it is all predictable - even though some were quite funny.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, I think she looked good and even though many had said that hers was a brief role in it and that she couldn't be seen in the promos, I think that sh did a good job of it. I felt that had the script been a bit more stronger, then her role would have been a bit more stronger as well.One thing, I thought was a let down was that her her character was very predictable from the moment she appears on the scene.
Utpal, another thing that I thought was
Utpal, another thing that I thought was a total waste of actor was Andy Garcia, who is a good actor and has acted very well in movies such as "The Untouchables" with Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro and Sir Sean Connery. His character hardly had anything to do - at least as a major part.
If you look at the gags that the late Peter Sellers performed - forexample in "Shot In The Dark," one of the earlier "Pink Panther" movies, when at the end he is sitting down and talking to others in the room, towards the end of the movie and he is slowly leaning back so much that he falls over backwards and causes mayhem and havoc, one is able to see that it is going to make one laugh. But when it really happens, it comes straight at the viewer like a bolt out of the sky and his actions really did make one laugh. One character that I think was really missed in this one was Burt Kwouk, who played the role of Inspector Clouseau's Chinese "Karate" Buttler," Cato". Even watching him and Clouseau having a fight in the orginals was hillarious. Though Steve Martin had two kids performing karate, one still missed "Cato" and his gimmicks of getting back at his boss.