CityLife

Pink Panther 2

LET'S review the evidence: the death of Shawn Levy’s 2006 remake of The Pink Panther at the box office; the kidnapping of anything resembling a joke from a script co-written by leading man Steve Martin; and the poisoning of nostalgic affection for the films starring Peter Sellers.

Three years later, Martin dons the moustache and vacant stare of ham-fisted Inspector Clouseau once more in this lamentable second outing which is, unthinkably, even more relentlessly silly and dull than its predecessor.

The Pink Panther 2 is an embarrassment, revolving yet again around the theft of the legendary diamond from under ze noses of ze gendarme in ze French capital.

The convoluted plot, clumsily stitched together by screenwriters Scott Neustadter, Michael H Weber and Martin, is a hook for desperately unfunny set pieces which include Clouseau falling down a chimney, donning the guise of a flamenco dancer and impersonating the Pope.

Regrettably, the most accomplished sequence – an ill-fated trip to a restaurant trip where Clouseau decides to chooses his own bottle of wine – is included almost in its entirety in the trailer, robbing Harald Zwart’s picture of its one and only chance of a chuckle.

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