Dumbed Down Even More

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

THE PINK PANTHER 2 is the most recent version of an Inspector Clouseau movie that started in 1964 with Peter Sellers in the lead role, the second with Steve Martin as the bumbling French detective, and hopefully it will be the last one.

The 2006 THE PINK PANTHER with Martin attempting a silly French accent was bad enough, but this one is even worse.

Hollywood has not only run out of ideas, stories, and characters, but it has also run out of titles.

It has run out of actors, too, it appears, because John Cleese has replaced Kevin Kline as Chief Inspector Dreyfus, but that still isn’t enough to make you bother to see this unfunny waste of time.

The premise is that a master criminal named The Tornado has stolen the Magna Carta from Great Britain, the Emperor’s Sword from Japan, and the Shroud of Turin from Italy. An international “dream team” of detectives has been formed, and the world’s greatest detective is chosen to lead it.

That would be the Inspector Clouseau, but only for comedic reasons.

Except in this movie.

Watching the opening titles, you might ask, “Is this the best thing in the movie?” And the answer is “Yes.”

Another question you might ask is, “What is Lily Tomlin doing in this movie?” She plays Mrs. Berenger without making any attempt at a French accent, good or bad, and she is supposed to teach Clouseau how to be more politically correct in his attitude and comments.

In actuality, however, all she does is interrupt the plot, which isn’t going anywhere anyway.

In fact, there are too many subplots having nothing to do with catching The Tornado, which just distract from the main plot, which is to catch The Tornado, expecially after the Pink Panther diamond goes missing.

However, when you dumb down Inspector Clouseau, what are you left with? Absolutely nothing.

The ending is ridiculous, and the whole movie is ridiculous.

In fact, the movie is so boring that at one point I didn’t even feel like watching any more of it.

Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards, the director of the good Pink Panther movies, are undoubtedly rolling over in their graves.

THE PINK PANTHER 2 has been dumbed down even more than the 2006 version with Steve Martin, and let us hope that this is the last one.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”