It's not often I get such immediate validation of something I wrote, but this bit on Steve Martin's next role sure makes one of my entries in Film Threat's Frigid 50 look dead on. Or maybe I'm just stating the obvious. Again.
Steve Martin, whose films have ranged from "The Jerk" to "Father of the Bride," is now stepping up to play bumbling Inspector Clouseau in an MGM remake of "The Pink Panther"
The original production and four sequels starred Peter Sellers as the inept French detective who tracks down jewel thieves.
I remember when Martin used to be funny. I think the last time was in 1983 (and parts of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles"). Even at his height (1979's "The Jerk"), he was no Peter Sellers.
It's getting to the point where I could write a Word macro for these entries about movie remakes. Insert comments about the continuing Death of Creativity in Hollywood as you see fit.
UPDATE: Dark Horizons, as always, has more:
"Martin is pulling down $15 million with a built-in option for a sequel. Jackie Chan and the original series' one and only Herbert Lom are "in talks" to play Cato and Dreyfus (the only other returning characters in Len Blum's script).
Couldn't they have just made another "Shanghai Noon?"
Check out the testy way the studio spy ends his report:
By the way, while various newshounds are describing the project as a remake or a prequel when it's neither. I would describe it as The Pink Panther series for the 21st Century. End of story".
So...it's a "reimagining?" Like Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes?"
Whew. I was worried there for a minute.
And, though light and fluffy, Bringin' Down the House got quite a few laughs out of me. Granted, more because of Queen Latifah. But Martin was the straight-man in that comedy duo, so you can't fault him too much. I'm not saying it was Steve Martin's best acting, but the film did make me laugh.
I have to go with kodi. All of Martin's films in the 1986-1991 range had varying ranges of amusement. I enjoyed Little of Shop of Horrors; I thought Roxanne was a shallow adaptation but still good; Parenthood was good because it's true; My Blue Heaven, LA Story, Father of the Bride, even the sappy Grand Canyon was, I thought, worth watching in the dollar cinema.
After 1991 Martin has been terrible. You can make an exception for Bowfinger if you like; that seems to be a polarizing issue. Otherwise, feh.
The Pink Panther movies were funny (if you found them funny at all) because Sellers was a master of making slapstick look understated. The best physical comedy in that series is set up by Sellers using his body with a mime's deftness to describe a bumbler trying to navigate through the world. Martin doesn't have that subtlety; he's basically Jim Carrey with silver hair.
You didn't like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels back in 1988?