The Pink Panther A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - PG It's 1:45 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

For this film we get Steve Martin playing the role of the bumbling detective Inspector Clouseau and Kevin Kline as Chief Inspector Dreyfus. It seems some rich soccer coach dude gets offed after his team won the big game. Xania (Beyonce Knowles) was the dude’s girlfriend, so, of course, she’s a suspect. Dreyfus brings in Clouseau as the lead detective for this case so that while Clouseau is making a mockery of himself, well, Dreyfus can find the real killer and get all of the glory and the big Medal of Honor. Dreyfus also has Gilbert (Jean Reno) be Clouseau’s partner so that Gilbert can feed Dreyfus everything Clouseau is doing just in case Clouseau actually gets a real clue.

As the movie goes, yea, Clouseau gets into all kinds of pickles, has a really bad accent that causes some problems at the airport, and yes, solves the crime. Hooray, Clouseau does it again!

So, with that quick synopsis, let get to the other places I could have started.

At first glance, with the original trailer, I almost thought Steve Martin could be a nice replacement for the role made famous by Peter Sellers. I was mistaken. There was something endearing about Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, especially since he was the original, and he’s an original that can have no replacement. It also makes me wonder about the choices Steve Martin is making, and he even had a writing credit for this film. Here he is, one of the great comedians of our time, and he’s in roles that seem, well, far beneath him, like this movie and "Cheaper by the Dozen 2." It’s almost like he takes these for the money so he can go and make a movie like "Shopgirl." I love Steve Martin, but a movie like "The Pink Panther" drops that love just a tad.

And don’t get me started about Kevin Kline. Here’s another brilliant actor, in a role that can in no way compare to that of Herbert Lon. He tries, but just doesn’t cut it. I could also go more into why Beyonce or Jean Reno would lend themselves to this movie, other than the idea that "It’s got Steve Martin and Kevin Kline? I don’t need to read the script, of course I’m in!" filled their heads rather than, well, reading the script.

Here’s another thing that bugged me about this flick. As a young lad growing up there was just more hinted sex for the original films, and better fighting between Clouseau and Cato, even some slight nudity in "The Pink Panther Strikes Again," that instantly makes it a classic in the eyes of a pre-pubescent boy just coming into the age of "Wow, she’s hot!" I couldn’t figure out where they were really going with the remake because it seems they wanted to make this version of "The Pink Panther" a little more adult, but decided that it’s only chance to make some money was to clean it up so it could be rated PG for the kiddies rather than the PG-13 the movie really needed to be for the adults. My recommendation for this film would have been to just go all out and make it a true adult comedy and shoot for the R rating. Damn, thinking about it, an all-out R-rated Pink Panther could really have been funny.

Well, this review is getting too long as it is for a movie that really isn’t made for adults. The six-ish year old next to me seemed to love the film, laughing at everything a six-ish year old would laugh at, and there was someone else towards the back of the theater doing the same. Me, I did laugh a couple of times, and yes, they did have a scene showing farts are funny, but for the most part, this movie just seemed to go for the laughs a youngin’ could enjoy, and just leave the parents going "What happened to ‘The Pink Panther’ I used to know and love?" This wasn’t it.

In the end, because I did laugh a couple of times, I will give "The Pink Panther" 1 ½ stars out of 5, but for the most part, this remake is made for the kids, with an occasional joke geared for the adults, but usually falling flat because it’s nothing we haven’t heard before. I don’t care what the folks at Columbia Pictures say, I say they dumped this movie into the February movie season because they knew it wasn’t great but might be able to get some type of box office with the lack of movies everyone wants to see. This is not the adult "Pink Panther" series most of us remember, this is one made for the kids.  Oh well.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!