As if to cleanse my pallet of the 2006 remake of the Pink Panther, I rented the 1976 film, The Pink Panther Strikes Again. As I said before, Tammy is not a big fan of slap-stick comedy. She surprised me (and maybe herself) by sitting through this whole show and actually laughing at most of it. I, on the other hand, howled. I love Peter Sellers as Jacques Clouseau.

It seems like each of these movies has a scene that has become a Pink Panther cliche. In “Strikes Again” we have the classic, “Zat iz not my dog,” scene between Clouseau and the old German inn keeper. Oh, it makes me chuckle just to think about it.

I’m not sure what all I can say about this film to praise it. If you’ve never scene the old Pink Panther series, you simply MUST. If you have, then you have already made up your mind and you either think Sellers was a genius or you think it was stupid. In that case, I can’t do much to change your mind.

I will caution that if you are looking for some good Clouseau, don’t go back to the first “Pink Panther”, released in 1963. That one was a weird mix of James Bond, cloak and dagger, with Sellers’ slap-stick thrown in for comic relief. Also avoid the Panthers made after Sellers died (in 1980).

I give this film four out of five grins. By my ranking system, that means that I’d be willing to buy this one. (Which is convenient since they now have a Pink Panther box set. Hint hint!)

I really enjoy the old Pink Panther movies. Peter Sellers was a comedic genius. Steve Martin, I feel, is also a comedic genius, but in a completely different realm.

As much as I love Steve’s work, I was very skeptical when I heard he was doing a Panther remake. I feel so strongly about Sellers’ Clouseau, I was certain that Martin’s Couseau would not live up. Tammy really wanted to see the film and I was curious how it would measure up. I went in with low expectations and they were met… barely.

50% of Peter Sellers’ humor (especially in the Pather series) came from his accents. Clouseau’s outlandish French lives in the pantheon of funny accents. The other characters had decent accents (French, German, Russian, etc.) unlike most American movies in which any foreign character has a British accent.

In this new incarnation, Martin does have a few lines which attempt to make fun of his (poorly done) French accent. But seriously, how does “dehbuugahh” sound like a French person saying “hamburger”? To make Martin’s French sound more French, the other characters were given (surprise surprise) British accents rather than French. Kevin Kline, who plays Chief Inspector Dreyfus, sounds about as French as Madonna and I know he can do a flawless French accent thanks to his brilliant performance in “French Kiss”.

You can’t do the Pink Panther without doing some physical humor. While I’ve always thought this was Steve Martin’s forte, he didn’t really deliver as Clouseau. The best pratfalls were in the trailer. (This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.) The movie was much more predictable than it’s predecessors. I found I was laughing, but I wasn’t laughing at the jokes. I was laughing at how bad the jokes were.

Tammy isn’t a big fan of comedies in the slap-stick/silly variety, but she is a huge fan of Martin’s later work in “family comedies”. She summed it up best when the lights came up. “That was really really bad.”

Sorry, Steve, but I’m afraid you struck out on this one. I give it two out of five grins.

Remember the good old days when life was simple and going to a gym had nothing to do with new years resolutions. This week’s white board quip draws on those days of yore. I give you… Garth.

She makes me feel kinda funny like when we used to climb the rope in gym class.

I’m pretty sure Garth was “on the wing” for that girl. *wink*