Release Date: February 6, 2009

(out of 4)

"The Pink Panther 2" fills out a larger cast than its predecessor but that only leaves more room for more actors to fumble their way through shopworn shtick. Steve Martin once again reprises his role as the accident-prone Inspector Jacques Clouseau – a role made famous by ironman Peter Sellers – this time joining an international crack team of detectives on the trail of a master thief known only as Il Tornado who manages to make victim of the Pope in Vatican City among other crimes in this installment. Clouseau offending the Pope’s decorum? How madcap!

The crack team, televised as the Dream Team, is led by such shrewd actors as Alfred Molina, Yiki Matsuzaki, Aishwarya Rai and Andy Garcia – all of whom reluctant of Clouseau’s contribution. Molina is so chagrined by Clouseau’s ineptness that he promises if Clouseau solves the case he will prance around in a tutu. He makes the promise twice, so you hope the script will at least follow through (yes!), but the script does have its lapses – one being the introduction of suspect Jeremy Irons, who despite being essential to the entire plot, disappears after two appearances. The Dream Team interrogates the British actor Irons at his Roman mansion, and thanks to Clouseau, Irons disrobes his top twice. Naturally The Dream Team wants Clouseau removed.

As an additional sage of reason is disgruntled Inspector Dreyfus (John Cleese replacing Kevin Kline) continues to preserve dignity in the face of Clouseau’s ubiquitous destructiveness, and proudly has assigned his inferior to the tedious task as parking cop which lends way to a painfully unfunny intro sequence of an angry driver taking off with Clouseau’s arm lodged in the window (hardee har har). Clouseau is never a stranger to pain, but audiences might get familiar with the painfully unfunny in a franchise ever-willing to recycle old gags by force. With best lenience, you can give “Panther 2” the credit of being a mixed bag of gags that work and gags that fail miserably. When Clouseau’s partner Ponton (Jean Reno) moves in after separating from his wife, his two kids rowdily tear up Clouseau’s residence and beat down Clouseau with newly adopted karate chops, this is such a sequence that fails miserably… and mirthlessly.

If there a couple of madcap scenes that work well in the department of hilarity, I’ll have to say the Clouseau’s trademark mayhem of selecting a wine only to chaotically juggle dozens of bottles at a time and ultimately burn down the entire restaurant is a highlight – although I could have done without him burning it down a second time. And while slapstick destructive mania can be typically too in-your-face blatant, the use of surveillance cameras with Clouseau bumbling and crashing around is funnier than if the cameras had objectively traced every pratfall – doubly funny that the Dream Team tries to sway their suspect’s attention away from his surveillance monitors during the course of their Q&A.

Yet for every scene that works, there are three or so scenes that don’t work. It doesn’t help that verbal-driven scenes are derivative of the predecessor movie with Clouseau once again mangling the word ham-buërger on multiple occasions, a gag that fell flat the first time around. In a movie of unfunny embarrassments, a critic’s POV is steered to observing the co-stars as to see how bored they look but the upshot is that everyone from Molina to Garcia is game to give their cardboard characters the best life that can possibly be served. Molina, while perturbed, is giggly in-between reaction shots. Garcia is a cold as steel detective but relishes his character’s womanizer traits. Matsuzaki looks constantly peppy. Rai is graceful if zestfully off-guard by the shenanigans. Cleese is apparently paranoid during his most granted relaxed scenes seemingly always worried that Clouseau is going to enter any moment and wreck things. And I almost forgot to mention Lily Tomlin is in the movie as the Justice Bureau’s flustered social advisor.

If I’m a sucker for anything however, it is movies about geeks in love and this movie once again has a geeky bashful romance between Clouseau and his secretary Nicole (Emily Mortimer) whose librarian glasses and blushing smile is an everlasting constant. Their exchanges contain that kind of classic dialogue where the two of them try to talk bureaucracy, but catch awareness of their double entendres, and then overcompensate with language to cover up their faux pas and their subconscious loving intentions. And unable to capitalize on their affection for each other, both of them manage to get jealous rivals vying to keep them apart, with Clouseau distracted by the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai (Indian’s most famous model and actress) and Nicole by the oily charms of Andy Garcia. This is the best part of the movie, really, Clouseau’s affectionate eye gazing for his perfect mate circumstantially out of reach.

Old shtick dominates however whether it be non-sequitur lines of questioning or forced crashing through windows or upsetting the Pope’s people. “Panther 2” is encumbered with wincing moments, but the bad scenes at least don’t overstay their welcome and the adroit pacing lets the movie be over thankfully fast. Steve Martin is unbarred and unmonitored this outing but of course the character of Inspector Clouseau has no boundaries, but it’s the script that needed monitored for damage control. By attempting to please the audience’s hunger for slapstick in every scene, the comedy becomes exasperatingly overloaded. It’s a strained compliment when to say that at least the film’s editing cuts well.