Pink Panther 2
Steve Martin finds himself thinking “pink” again
Tags: Pink Panther DVD Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jul 2nd, 2009
While there were some redeeming qualities for the first Pink Panther “reboot” (mostly due to Steve Martin being naturally funny) the film itself left little to be desired. The inevitable sequel arrived on Blu-ray and I placed it in my player with some trepidation, but was resolved to view it with an open mind.
To my surprise, I found this film to be more enjoyable than its predecessor. The humor was a bit broader, more physical and in keeping with what made the original films so enjoyable. Martin’s Clousseau is still a little hard to take, but certainly enjoyable – and yes, I am aware of the contradiction.
This time, Clousseau is surrounded by an international team of crack investigators investigating a series of thefts from around the globe. These are decent characters, but sorely underused. They provide some good moments but not nearly enough interplay that one would expect. We get Alfred Molina and Andy Garcia (along with a couple of others that you most likely won’t recognize unless you’re an absolute world film geek) playing it straight, along with the returning Jean Reno.
Jeremy Irons is also present as a villain, but he is also criminally underused and has no menace to him. His role is so short that he isn’t even listed in the credits on the back of the case. Stepping into the role of Inspector Dreyfus is John Cleese, who does a brilliant job, and there would have been a great film had Kevin Cline (who portrayed Dreyfus in the last film) portrayed Clousseau against Cleese’s Dreyfus.
Another weak part of the film is the role of the equality/tolerance coach. It isn’t that Lily Tomlin does a bad job – actually some of the better moments of the film happen when these two are on screen together. It is this plot point would have been better had it been a major story point rather than a partial side plot that could have easily have been excised.
Despite these issues, The Pink Panther 2 is enjoyable enough on its own merits. It’s not great, but not quite the cinematic waste the first was.
On Blu-ray we are getting a paltry offering of special features, which is odd considering the benchmark made with the predecessor’s Blu-ray effort. We get a gag reel, and two short featurettes which are artificially separated and seemingly part of a much larger overall. And that’s it. No deleted scenes, no audio commentary, and no Blu-ray exclusive features..
We do get a second disc which is a digital copy of the film, as well as a third disc which is a DVD of 27 Pink Panther shorts – but these shorts were previously released as part of the various extensive collections that were released just a short while ago.
The Pink Panther 2 is a better film than the previous one, but the Blu-ray is actually worse as an offering.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + Funnier than the first | 5.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Underused aspects of cast and story elements - Lame special features (what few there are) |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Steve Martin fans will enjoy this. | |
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: Pink Panther DVD
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jul 2nd, 2009 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
