Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau
 

I am disturbed that this is happening.

I believe there are certain roles that should never be played by anyone other than the orginal.

Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. Clark Gable is Rhett Butler. James Earl Jones is (the voice of) Darth Vader. Peter Sellers is Inspector Clouseau.

I will certainly not be able to bring myself to see it. But I was inspired to rent the originals and show my kids. They are certainly not theatrical masterpieces, but they are what they are - silly, slapstick humor.

If this was an original idea, I could see Steve Martin in a movie like this, but it is an injustice to cast anyone else as Clouseau.

I am also saddened that they are obviously going with some political correctness in the movie. Most obviously is the casting of Kato. It was hilarious when Clouseau would refer to Kato as "my little yellow friend". Something tells me that wouldn't have been tolerated in this movie.

Oh well. So much for my pretty much uneducated cinematic thoughts.

I don't buy Martin as Clouseau either.
I just don't know why this needs to be remade...

I agree wholeheartedly and I find the cell phone commercials with him in the theater painfully unfunny. Long live Peter Sellars.
Donna

I would love to stir up controversy and offer a differing opinion - but I saw the tv commercial.

WTF happened to Steve? It seems that his intellectual side has been confined to the New Yorker magazine and he's become a big screen hack. Pity. Cheaper By The Dozen? Two? Ugh!

And what the hell is Jean Reno doing in this travesty?

oh... and I just check imdb - the Pink Panther was directed by the same guy who brought us Cheaper By The Dozen.

I'm so glad I have a big TV and the Sellers/Clouseau set on DVD.

I'm really pissed at Martin for this.

Yeah, we make snarky remarks whenever we pass a billboard. The rampant remakeism is killing me.

So I see indie flicks instead.

The trailers pain me to watch. Why did anyone think this was a good idea?

Why did I think that Kevin Kline was going to be Clouseau?

He's in the film but not playing the Inspector. If they were going to re-make, couldn't they have gotten the casting right? Kline would be a much better Clouseau. Not that I want a re-remake.

I think I saw an ad and made the leap (of faith) that Kline would be Clouseau. That seems passable to me at least - not that any remake can replace the brilliance of Peter Sellers.

I guess Mr. Martin just wanted to add a Razzie (or two or three) to the list of awards he has won.

I've hated the idea of this remake ever since I first heard it mentioned. I feared it would be awful and the trailers have convinced me that it is beyond awful. Nobody can play that role but Peter Sellers. Same for Herbert Lom's role and Burt Kwouk.

I can only hope that this and ever other ill-conceived sequel bombs horifically and puts and end to this trend. Doesn't anyone in Hollywood have an original idea anymore?

I watched "Return of the Pink Panther" iwth my 12 year old over the weekend. That's the one where Chief Inspector Dreyfus finally goes completely over the edge. He was birlliant....and scarily convincing.

That's also the one where Kato attacks Clouseau after hiding in the fridge. I'm laughing just writing about it.

Ooh, are we playing "Work Titles of Bad Steve Martin Movies into Your Conversation"!?

Becasue if we are...

I certainly don't think Pink Panther will be bringing down the house on opening night. I guess these remakes may be cheaper by the dozen for the studios to make, but I can't help but think that the box office results will be at best a bag of mixed nuts. I know I'd probably have to be pumped full of novocaine to sit through another one of them.

As far as "nobody can play that role," has anyone seen Alan Arkin in the role? I've known about the film ever since I was a kid, and have never had any desire to see it - and I'm a big Arkin fan (Catch-22, Wait Until Dark both came out around that time and are both classics).

*clicks on mixed nuts.....clicks on novocaine*

Oh yeah, those. Right.

Count me in as another hopeful for Kline....oh well.

Novocaine - that was stinko. Bleh!

No, but I saw Roberto Begnini, and it was miserably bad. My parents had rented it and if I wanted to hang out with them (I was in college and visiting at the time) I had to watch it. Bleach!

I have vague recollections of hearing about this one but never saw it. Was Begnini supposedly Clouseau's son????

I kind of liked Novocaine. I've never seen the original Pink Panther movies mostly because every time I try they are so completely unfunny that I give up quickly. But it has been a decade at least since I tried so maybe I'm more refined now.

The trailer looks terrible and the "turn off your cell phone" thing I've had to sit through a dozen times already is more than enough to keep me far from the movie.

This is how I feel about most Mel Brooks and all of Monty Python, but, odly enough, I love the Pink Panther films.


Ohm yeah, and I meant to reference that Steve Martin film above. Yup. I did.

Actually, I would say that Dreyfus goes a bit more psycho in "The Pink Panther Strikes Again". It is this film that he creates the doomsday machine to destroy the world.

I love all of the original Pink Panther films. Well, except for "The Trail of the Pink Panther", which was horrible and only had snippets of Peter Sellers in it. I believe he had died before the film was completed.

I feel silly for saying this, but that's actually my favorite of them all. When Clouseau is in the Castle and has given Dreyfus laughing gas while posing as a dentist......i just can never stop laughing while i'm watching that.

I also like the assassin with the fake boobs that have poison spikes in them.

It may be my favorite as well. Sillier than the first two (three if you include "A Shot in the Dark") but loads of fun regardless. Love the laughing gas scene! :)

My parents turned me on to these films at a very young age. I saw them all in the theater, except the original. Very cool that you are turning your kids on to them. They really are timeless.

Not to mention the current boxed set of them all are swankily packaged in Shag artwork.

I don't think the Pink Panther films have dated well. Either that, or I just don't enjoy them as much as when I saw them in theaters on their original runs ... when I was 12.

I still think Peter Sellers was brilliant, and that attempting to put someone else in the role is folly. Though, of course, the irony that mousepod pointed out is that Sellers would never have performed the role if the folly wasn't committed in the first place.

I keep hoping for a revolt from the viewing public against this endless onslaught of crappy remakes. Apparently, I will be waiting for a long time. Why does anyone want to even see this crap?

Well, the suburban families have to do something with their time.

This weekend was a rare one for me. I couldn't find a single movie playing within 30 miles of me that I was willing to go see (that I hadn't already seen). Not even with my low standards and really wanting to get out of the house last night.

I almost went and saw Firewall just because but ended up watching Blade on TNT (might as well watch the crap for free). But I would have expected more families to end up at Firewall than The Pink Panther.

I won't be seeing The Pink Panther. Just wouldn't be able to bring myself to do it (obviously, from my earlier posts).

On Rotten tomatoes, though, I'm amused that Firewall has a lower rating than Pink Panther - and the Pink Panther is only at a 20% rating.

'Firewall' came in 4th. Even the monkey beat Harrison Ford. Wow!