The Pink Panther 2 (2009)

The Pink Panther 2 (2009)

Directed by: Harald Zwart

Starring: Steve Martin, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer

If there’s one thing sadder than a remake of a good movie, it’s a SEQUEL of the remake of the good movie. I mean, I like Steve Martin and all, but let’s please never have another one of these.

In Pink Panther 2, Inspector Clouseau returns to find “The Tornado,” a famous thief who’s been stealing things like the Shroud of Turin and, of course, the pink panther diamond. He’s joined by an international force of other detectives, but in the end Clouseau solves the mystery, much to everyone’s surprise.

This movie is almost exactly the same as the last one in the series. Seriously, there’s even the same ‘big reveal’ at the end that was painfully obvious from the beginning. For me, the best part of the movie was Jean Reno, who’s just a good actor, and actually quite funny in a subdued way in these movies (which also helps played against Martin’s over-the-top slapstick style). Also in this movie we get Alfred Molina, Jeremy Irons, and John Cleese, who takes over Kevin Kline’s role from the last movie. Cleese plays himself, like he always does, a befuddled and angry old man. Strangely, he plays the role of Chief Dreyfus much closer to the original guy who did it in the sixties, which is kinda neat (as long as we ignore that one Pink Panther movie where he becomes a Dr. Phibes-esque supervillain. That was retarded).

However, the movie is basically just the same thing again, and in my opinion, that makes it really not worth seeing. I’d be really nice if Steve Martin could go back to being innovative, but I think that time is sadly long past.