By Samantha Ofole-Prince
Another big screen reincarnation of the clumsy Clouseau character originally played by British actor Peter Sellers seems redundant at first, but throw in a bankable sultry pop starlet (Beyonce) and the odds are vastly improved. Sadly, it doesn’t happen in this ridiculously unfunny flick. Steve Martin is the bungling buffoonish French detective, Jacques Clouseau, who is brought in by Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) to solve the crime of a missing pink diamond known as the "Pink Panther," which belongs to a famous murdered soccer coach. Dreyfus detests Clouseau and secretly hopes he will bungle the case so he can take over and get the international credit he feels he deserves. As Clouseau, clad in his customary tan trench coat, complete with a vacant expression and a plausible French accent plods across central Paris and midtown New York questioning murder suspects (which includes the deceased’s pop star girlfriend Xania played by Beyoncé Knowles), he leaves a trail of wreckage in his wake. Plenty of things get broken, smashed and scattered and he can’t even sign a document without causing the pen to explode. Of course, 92 minutes later he intelligently solves the crime, but not without destroying a New York hotel suite, getting electrocuted, damaging several vehicles and causing chaos at the airport.
Martin’s gift for physical comedy is well-known and to be fair he does deliver a minutely funny performance that we haven’t seen from him in some time. The supporting actors could have done with a little bit more screen time, and despite looking great onscreen Knowles has such a limited part which she tends to overact at times.
For a comedy, Pink Panther is hugely disappointing as the humor is based on the idea that when you hit your head on a door, it hurts, but when someone else hits their head, it’s hilarious. It’s slapstick, sophomore humor. Bottom-line, you won’t be tickled pink with this one.
