Movie Review: The Pink Panther

Remember the cute, pink kitty and that fun theme song? A new version of the famed comedy classic The Pink Panther is on the prowl again.

The Pink Panther diamond is owned by a world famous soccer coach who wins a big match and is murdered on the field. The diamond, worn by the flashy coach in a gigantic ring, is stolen. The coach's fiancée Xenia (Beyonce Knowles) looks on in horror.

Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin) is a low level, inept detective in a small French town brought in by France's Chief Inspector (Kevin Kline) to investigate the murder and theft. Secretly, the inspector is using Clouseau to distract the media, while he hopes to solve the mystery behind the scenes and win a prestigious award. Clouseau is attracted to sexy suspect Beyonce but really loves his personal assistant, Nicole (Emily Mortimer) who is almost as bumbling as he is. Clouseau seems physically and mentally inept to solve the case but, of course, proves brilliant in the end.

Steve Martin is funny. Most of you won't have seen the original Pink Panther films so you won't be comparing him to Peter Sellers' version of the same character. I'm trying hard not to. Sellers was a comic genius with great timing. Martin doesn't quite cut it for me as the bumbling inspector but this film has enough physical comedy and funny moments to please you and most of your family.

Martin's attempts at learning English [50 ways to order a hamburger] are really funny as is a scene in which he interrogates a suspect by playing both the bad cop AND the good cop but other attempts at comedy fall flat. I would suspect that younger audiences would get more of a kick out of all the physical jokes and older filmgoers would chuckle at the verbal banter. Either way, it's fun to see Beyonce flirt it up and watch Martin blunder his way to solving the case but the film doesn't hold up to comparisons with the original film and its sequel A Shot in the Dark. Go see this version of The Pink Panther then go rent the oldies to see what I mean.

For some laughable comedy moments, 3 out of 5 stars

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter