Movie Review - "The Pink Panther"

I was never a HUGE fan of the originals, but I've probably seen most of them at one point or another. My son (who likes the cartoon version, even though he's never seen an episode of it) kept asking me what happened in the original film, but damned if I could remember. So my parents, as kind of a joke, got me the original on DVD. I fell asleep halfway through it. Not that it was overly boring; it just didn't keep my interest. Peter Sellers was hilarious at times, but I don't know; I definitely gave up at the mid-way point.

Now, I wasn't expecting much out of the remake (given the horrible reviews), but I did want to give it a chance because I think Steve Martin is hilarious. And as Inspector Clouseau, he did a very convincing job with the voice, the mannerisms, the pratfalls, etc. The problem was - everything was SO PREDICTABLE.

I don't mind the odd visual gag that you can see coming a mile away, but this was virtually every joke. And that... I have a huge problem with. Why invest 90 minutes of my time when I know EXACTLY how every joke is going to end up?

So I blame the writing far more than the cast, who were fine on the most part. You'd figure after all the write-throughs this thing has gone through, someone could have made the script a tad more interesting....

A definite pass, in this humble Bulldog's opinion.