Son of the Pink Panther

This following to Closeau series is a new attempt to maintain the slapstick franchise in spite of Peter Sellers death by means the substituting in Italian actor Roberto Benigni . This eight installment is a passable and average comedy because the formula is run out ; it stars Robert Benigni replacing Peter Sellers as one man show accompanied by an excessive Herbert Lom . After making life intolerable for clumsy Inspector Closeau , previous Chief Inspector Charles Dreifuss (Herbert Lom) encounters Jacques Gambrelli (Robert Benigni), who reminds him painfully to Inspector Clouseau , the man who drove him nutty and got insane . With good reason: Gambrelli is Clouseau's son . While a princess (Debrah Farentino) is in France to accompany her daddy (Oliver Cotton), a king from far Orient on a diplomatic mission . She is abducted by some delinquents (Robert Davi , Jennifer Edwards )who obligate her father to abdicate , which he will not do even for her. And since her nation has such close ties to France the Police Prefect instructs commissioner Dreyfuss to go where the princess was abducted and directing the investigation. On the way he runs into the kidnappers and were to be shot when a Gendarme stumbles into them and saves Dreyfuss. Dreyfuss oversees that there is something familiar about this patrolman. When he goes to the local police chief and says him that he will be handling the investigation and asks for his best man, he assigns him Gambrelli, who just happens to be the Gendarme he met earlier . And having another meeting with Gambrelli, he goes to his home to encounter his mummy Maria (Claudia Cardinale), and is shocked to discover that results to be Closeau's son .

¨The revenge of the Pink Panther ¨ release was the fifth part of series of Inspector Clouseau from French Surete and the last entry by the late Peter Sellers though he would follow playing but with outtakes in films as ¨Trail of the Pink Panther¨. After that , it was continued by ¨The curse of the Pinnk Panther¨ that turned to be another flop and starred by Ted Wass . ¨The son of the Pink Panther ¨ is the eight part of Closeau series and a light comedy starred by the great Roberto Benigni as the inept and bungler Inspector of the French Surete . The movie gets entertaining and hilarious moments here and there. This slapstick picture contains amusing , funny scenes , fresh and diverting moments but also flaws and gaps . Herbert Lom steals the show parodying his classic character including his ordinary faces , grimaces and gestures . Appears as secondaries the usual series as Burt Kwouk , Grahame Stark and of course a mature Claudia Cardinale . The actors seem to enjoy themselves immensely but they are supposedly amusing holidays . Lively and atmospheric music by habitual Henry Mancini with songs arranged by Bobby MacFerrin ; furthermore ,magnificent opening and ending cartoon titles by Chris Hummel . Colorful and glimmer cinematography by Dick Bush . The film is regularly penned and directed,as always,by Blake Edwards. Several chuckles and gags , the result of which is one acceptable entry from series but inferior to precedent outings as the original ¨The Pink Panther¨, ¨A shot in dark¨, ¨Return of pink panther,¨Revenge of pink panther¨. Director Blake Edwards although gets some inspired bits penned by him however he attempts to alive his classic personage with no much success . The flick will appeal to Pink Panther series buffs and Roberto Benigni fans. This is arguably one of most mediocre of the series about the botcher and bungling Inspector .

Roberto Benigni would have gone on to win an Oscar for "Life is Beautiful" few years later. The film takes place in French Rivera. Roberto plays a local police inspector who lives with his mother. When Princesd Yasmin gets kidnapped, Benigni stumbled on by accident. The storyline is problematic at times but still enjoyable. Veteran Panther actors like Herbert Lom, Claudia Cardinale, and Burt Kwouk back. Roberto is the son of the original pink panther and he carries on Peter Sellers' legacy of physical comedy. Benigni does his job well as the son of the pink panther with his goofy expressions and physical sense of humor.

The "Pink Panther" franchise has spawned a number of movies. The last one in the series is "Son of the Pink Panther." It stars Roberto Benigni as the original Inspector Jacques Clouseau's son. He does a good job stumbling and bumbling his way through the story. It's easy to picture Benigni as a Clouseau-type stumblebum. And a number of characters appear that, although they did not appear in "The Pink Panther," have become familiar in other "Panther" movies. But the last in the line differs somewhat from the original. Its tone isn't quite as lighthearted as the first. It has a lot of violence that seems to taint the movie. Although there are a few good scenes, this movie reminds us all how sorely Peter Sellers is missed.

O.K. is the only possible way of analyzing this movie. It does what it set out to do. But if you have seen this movie and were disapointed, did you really think it was going to be as funny or enjoyable as earlier entries in the Pink Panther series? The movie's comedy is very lukewarm. Whether this is the fault of Blake Edwards, or maybe he intended it to be that way is unknown. Roberto Benigni is the Son. O.K, he is now an academy award winner, but in 1993 a complete unknown. If anyone on the movie wanted it to be a success then a bigger name should have been chosen, a David Jason, Dudley Moore or Rowan Atkinson. Benigni, does quite a good impersonation of Peter Sellers throughout the movie, but this aside isn't very funny or charming. The return of cast members like Herbert Lom, Graham Starke, Burt Kwouk and Liz Smith is good. But overall the movie seems forced and is something of a hit and miss. Lets hope the upcoming Mike Myers remake breathes new life into this series.

No this movie is not as good as the earliest Pink Panter movies and no, Roberto Benigni ain't no Peter Sellers but fair is fair, this is an entertaining and fun enough comedy, that showed some potential for a new fresh start of the Pink Panther series.

Everything in this movie indicated that they intended this movie as a new and fresh start of the Pink Panther series. The movie was more of its time and modern and looked more like a James Bond movie done comedy style than an old fashioned made slapstick, like all of the other previous Pink Panther movies were done in.

Too bad that people never really gave this movie a fair change. People just thought that the Pink Panther series should had stopped with the death of Peter Sellers in 1980 and director Blake Edwards should had never went on making more Pink Panther movies, as he did. This was the third Pink Panther movie without Peter Sellers, so people were already mostly fed up with it and after the previous too disappointing Pink Panther entries, the expectations for this movie naturally weren't really high. But I for one however wouldn't had mind seeing more Pink Panther movies with the son of Clouseau in it.

No, I never really have been a Roberto Benigni fan, since he mostly only plays naive, smiling, jumping and screaming comical characters but he simply was well cast in this movie and did a good job with his role. I think it was a good move that they didn't let hem try to impersonate Peter Seller's performance as the famous 'brilliant' inspector but instead letting him be a total different character with Benigni his own interpretation.

Nevertheless it's not a movie that totally abandons the style or spirit of the previous Pink Panther movies. It still let some old character re-appear in this movie such as Police Commissioner Charles Dreyfus (finally he got his promotion), Professor Auguste Balls, Cato and Sergeant Francois Duval. It however also becomes painfully obviously that by now the actors who are portraying the characters got terribly old and it became time for some fresh blood. As much as I loved Herbert Lom in all of the previous Pink Panther movies as Dreyfus, he really was too old for his role in this movie to be still believable and good in it. Same goes for Burt Kwouk as Cato, who at the time of this movie already was well in his 60's.

The fact that this is a more comical approach of James Bond also means that there is some more story present this time, with a real villain and a love interested, action, shooting as well as most other typical genre clichés. The feeling that this is a more comical version of James Bond is being strengthened by the presence of Robert Davi, who previously played the main villain in the James Bond movie "Licence to Kill". Basically he plays the same role as he always does; a ruthless criminal boss who always is looking for more power and money. But if you're so great at playing these sort of roles, why wouldn't you take it? A only complaint could be that he doesn't play his role comically enough. He is serious as always, though I'm not to sure if this was what the film-makers originally had in mind. The different approach of the entire movie might also be a reason why some people have difficulties accepting this as a Pink Panther movie but I in fact think that all of the Pink Panther movies are somewhat- and always wanted to be like James Bond movies, only done in a complete different comical style.

Director Blake Edwards with this movie shows that old fashioned slapstick can still be incorporated properly into 'modern' movies, if done and handled correctly. Blake Edwards with this movie shows that he still had it in him, which also makes it sort of a shame that his career pretty much died right after this movie.

Give this movie a fair change and you might end up liking it for what it is.

6/10

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