THE PINK PANTHER
The movie is not playing in Bangkok yet although I’ve seen a half hour preview on TV several times. What I’ve seen has caused me to laugh out loud, which is very uncommon for me. The leaky pen bit is tiresome, uncomfortable and unfunny. When Clouseau leaves an office he leaves it in flames. This is the established tradition. I expect it and anticipate it and laugh my ass off when it happens. He doesn’t leave with a pen soaking a guy’s shirt.
But the rest of the preview is very good. Steve Martin is right on with the accent which is hard to pull off.
The critics hate it. Rotten Tomatoes shows the critics voting 93 to 23 against it. See it all *here*. But critics are a humorless lot. I don’t trust them very much and least of all when a sense of humor is required. I will never forget, when reviewing Police Academy 3, Roger Ebert, looking earnestly at the camera with his beady pig-eyes, wondering why they didn’t use Tim Kazurinsky more in the movie. “This is a funny guy,” he informed me and the rest of America. He was basing that, I suppose, that Kazurinsky had been a regular on Saturday Night Live, ignoring the fact that he had been kicked off for being unfunny.
I digress.
A couple of interviews in the preview made me uncomfortable. Shawn Levy (there’s a name to think about), the director, informs us that this movie won’t be just about mispronouncing words as previous Pink Panther movies had been. They had put in physical humor. Really? It made me wonder if this guy had seen any of the previous movies.
Then Steve Martin told us that Clouseau was now going to be a lot smarter than people gave him credit for. Great! They’re going to turn Clouseau into Sherlock Holmes. That will be funny. No Steve, smarter is not funny. Dumber is funny.
I hope this is a big hit. Wouldn’t it be great to have this series go on and on? It would give me great pleasure.
A Shot in the Dark was the funniest movie ever. That is the one on which the whole series is based. In the original Pink Panther Peter Sellers was a supporting actor (never mind that he stole the film). It was a David Niven, Robert Wagner movie. After that it was all Peter Sellers. It was the greatest comedy series in history.
Let’s hope this particular history can continue.
But the rest of the preview is very good. Steve Martin is right on with the accent which is hard to pull off.
The critics hate it. Rotten Tomatoes shows the critics voting 93 to 23 against it. See it all *here*. But critics are a humorless lot. I don’t trust them very much and least of all when a sense of humor is required. I will never forget, when reviewing Police Academy 3, Roger Ebert, looking earnestly at the camera with his beady pig-eyes, wondering why they didn’t use Tim Kazurinsky more in the movie. “This is a funny guy,” he informed me and the rest of America. He was basing that, I suppose, that Kazurinsky had been a regular on Saturday Night Live, ignoring the fact that he had been kicked off for being unfunny.
I digress.
A couple of interviews in the preview made me uncomfortable. Shawn Levy (there’s a name to think about), the director, informs us that this movie won’t be just about mispronouncing words as previous Pink Panther movies had been. They had put in physical humor. Really? It made me wonder if this guy had seen any of the previous movies.
Then Steve Martin told us that Clouseau was now going to be a lot smarter than people gave him credit for. Great! They’re going to turn Clouseau into Sherlock Holmes. That will be funny. No Steve, smarter is not funny. Dumber is funny.
I hope this is a big hit. Wouldn’t it be great to have this series go on and on? It would give me great pleasure.
A Shot in the Dark was the funniest movie ever. That is the one on which the whole series is based. In the original Pink Panther Peter Sellers was a supporting actor (never mind that he stole the film). It was a David Niven, Robert Wagner movie. After that it was all Peter Sellers. It was the greatest comedy series in history.
Let’s hope this particular history can continue.
posted by Walter Guest at 6:21 PM
2 Comments:
Good Post - are you still running the site with all the pictures on it? Wherezit? thanks - DA
Thanks. Yeah. I'm at:
www.letterfrombangkok.net
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