The Pink Panther 2

Directed by Harald Zwart, The Pink Panther 2 follows Steve Martin’s Inspector Jacques Clouseau as he and several other detectives, including Alfred Molina’s Randall Pepperidge and Andy García’s Vincenzo Brancaleoni, attempt to track down a shadowy figure known only as The Tornado. Filmmaker Zwart, working from a script by Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber, and Martin, delivers a thoroughly by-the-number sequel that rarely, if ever, rises above the level of total mediocrity, as the movie, which boasts a mostly uninteresting mystery at its core, progresses through a slapdash, hit-and-miss narrative that’s compounded by a pronounced lack of laughs – with Martin’s increasingly one-note turn as the grating protagonist ultimately doing little to alleviate the arms-length atmosphere. And although the picture never quite sinks to level of all-out disaster, mostly due to the charming efforts of certain periphery players (including an amusing appearance by Lily Tomlin as an etiquette teacher attempting to correct Clouseau’s politically-incorrect behavior, The Pink Panther 2 builds towards a fairly tiresome climax that ensures it ends on a forgettable note and, as well, cements its place as a less-than-stellar sequel.

** out of ****