Pink Panther tops US box office ( Steve Martin Makes Inspector Clouseau his own )

BBC ^ | 02/13/2006 | BBC NEWS

[hattend]

--but Beyonce Knowles should not act.

People cast as eye candy only are not required to act.

They're trying to get that age 14-23 male demographic to the movie.

[VRWCmember]

Up 'til now, every review I've seen of this film has been extremely negative. This article must be from the bearded-Spock universe.

Actually there are more positive ratings than negative ratings for this movie.

I think you're confusing ratings with reviews. Reviewers hated this movie. Normal people going to the movies liked it in general.

[AZRepublican]

As long as you are willing to forget Peter Sellers and give the franchise a fresh new start..

You can't forget Sellers, he IS the franchise with his fingerprints all over it. James Bond character was created by a novelist and brought to life in books before hitting the screen....i.e., Bond was already defined and established. NO ONE could ever pull off the characters like Sellers did in Dr. Stangelove, not even Martin.

[AZRepublican]

Can you see Steve playing the characters Sellers did in Dr. Stranglove? Not in a million years! Nobody is that sophiscated to pull it off like he did.

[VRWCmember]

Martin was good in the first "Father of the Bride" which itself was a remake. He and Michael Caine were both hysterically funny in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" a movie that makes me laugh out loud no matter how often I watch it. Some of the scenes from Martin's Pink Panther had me laughing until there were tears in my eyes. Overall, it was not quite as good as Sellers' in "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" or "Return of the Pink Panther" but I thought it was better than Sellers' first Panther movie that starred David Niven as the elusive cat burglar and Robert Wagner as his son.

[Finny]

Totally agreed! Kevin Kline would be a PERFECT modern-day Clousseau. Steve Martin ... nah.

[L98Fiero]

"I actually thought she did an OK job in the Austin Powers -Goldmember movie."

Please step away from whatever intoxicant you appear to be partaking in. :)

[SAJ]

Dittoed and bumped, X!

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

steve was ok as a stand-up comic in the late 70's but as an actor he is not too good...

Are you kidding? Steve is to comedy what Harrison Ford is to action movies. The guy ages like fine wine. He was hilarious in "Bringing down the House" with Queen Latifah and his movie previews that told audiences to turn down or put your cell phone on vibrate.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Steve is to comedy what Harrison Ford is to action movies.

Given that Harrison Ford hasn't made a good action movie in some years, you may want to rethink that comparison.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Saw it this past weekend. I can't recall the last time a movie made me laugh so hard. It's probably helped by the fact that I never saw the originals, but it doesn't stop it from being a hilarious movie.

Rating: A-

If you have kids above the age of 7, take them to this movie. You might just have a good laugh yourself.

[SirLinksalot]

It's probably helped by the fact that I never saw the originals, but it doesn't stop it from being a hilarious movie.

That's what I keep repeating to naysayers in this thread... Keep an open mind and stop comparing Martin to Peter Sellers.

If people keep obsessing about Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan would have never made James Bond a hit in the 90's and the 21st century. Same argument applies to Martin vs Sellers.

That is why I say we need to re-create Cloueseau for this generation and give Martin a chance to own the character. As my title for the thread shows -- HE DID.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

Well I have seen the oringals and I'm not even that big of a Steve Martin fan, but I love his version of Inspector Closeau in this movie. My mother and I saw it on Sunday and we were in hysterics several times.