Sparkling Red Star originated from the same titled novel written by a famous Chinese writer Li Xintian. The novel was remade into a film in the 1970s and has become one of the classic all-time hit in China’s film industry. The story is set in 1937 against the background of the Red Army's Long March. In Liuxi Village in Jiangxi, an innocent and cheerful child, Pan Dongzi, spent his carefree childhood. But after reaching 10 years of age, he began to experience the sorrows and joys of life's partings and reunions.
Subtitle: Chinese trad./English
duration: 81 min | XVid 592x320 | 384 kbps 5.1AC3 | 23 fps |
size: 700 mb
Genre : Animation/Drama
http://rapidshare.com/files/205601624/cowry-srs-sample.avi
trailer
http://anonym.to/?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN2L1yXZN88
Mar 6, 2009
Sparkling Red Star (2007)
Kayhan Kalhor and Brooklyn Rider Silent City
Kayhan Kalhor has performed and recorded with Iran's greatest singers and instrumentalists and toured the world as a soloist. He co-founded the Dastan, Ghazal and Masters of Persian Music ensembles and has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Lyon, and others. In addition to his work as a performer, Kalhor's compositions have been used for various television and film projects. He is also is an original member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project and his works are heard on all of the Ensemble's albums. Three of his recordings, including his two previous World Village releases, Faryad and Without You, were nominated for Grammy® Awards. The innovative, genre-bending string quartet Brooklyn Rider (Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violins, Nicholas Cords, viola and Eric Jacobsen, cello), is named for the members' beloved New York borough and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) — a German expressionist movement that flourished during the early twentieth century. The quartet has been challenging and delighting audiences ever since its inception by dividing its time between exploring traditional classical repertoire, new music and fervently adventurous intercultural explorations. Aside from their affiliation with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project, Brooklyn Rider has worked with composers such as Chen Yi and Kayhan Kalhor and performers such as violinist Jenny Scheinman and visual artist Kevork Mourad.
Download From Rapidshare:
http://rapidshare.com/files/205551720/Kayhan_Kalhor_And_Brooklyn_Rider_-_Silent_City.rar
Tracklist:
01. Ascending Bird
02. Silent City
03. Parvaz
04. Beloved Don't Let Me Be Discouraged
05. Keyhan Kalhors Interview
Mar 2, 2009
Cannes film festival honours Clint Eastwood
Festival hands 78-year-old actor-director a lifetime achievement Palme d'Or, only the second in its history. Eastwood rails against politically correct culture that outlaws jokes about ethnicity and nationality
Man with the golden palm ... Cannes film festival president Gilles Jacob hands Clint Eastwood his lifetime achievement Palme d'Or. Photograph: Boris Horvat/AFP/Getty Images
Clint Eastwood yesterday became only the second person to receive a lifetime achievement Palme d'Or from the organisers of the Cannes film festival. The 78-year-old film-maker was honoured for his body of work at a presentation at Le Fouquet's restaurant in Paris. He joins Ingmar Bergman, who received the honour in 1997, in the most exclusive club on the festival circuit.
"I'm very, very flattered that you've chosen me for this," Eastwood said. "French cineastes have always been very supportive of me along the way. When I directed my first movie, French cineastes and critics encouraged me, while in my own country, everyone was much more reticent. France is the first country to approach and appreciate cinema as an art form."
Yesterday, Cannes president Gilles Jacob paid tribute to Eastwood's work before and behind the camera. "It would be impossible to choose just one of your works for this supreme honour," he said. "It's the right time to give the Palme d'Or to Clint Eastwood." Turning to Eastwood, he added: "And forget about your legendary modesty."
While Eastwood may have been a model of modesty at yesterday's ceremony, he was rather more outspoken in an interview earlier in the week. Speaking to the German magazine Der Spiegel, Eastwood, currently seen in cinemas as an unreconstructed racist ex-soldier in Gran Torino, railed against what he sees as a culture of political correctness that has effectively outlawed jokes about people's nationality or ethnicity. "People have lost their sense of humour," he insisted. "In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. [But] you can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth, otherwise you will be insulted as a racist. I find it ridiculous."
He added: "In those earlier days every friendly clique had a 'Sam the Jew' or 'Jose the Mexican' – but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist thought."
Eastwood will not be attending this year's Cannes film festival because he will be in South Africa, shooting a biopic of Nelson Mandela. The event runs from 13-24 May, and the jury will be headed by Isabelle Huppert. [the guardian]
Feb 27, 2009
The Class: Interview
Laurent Cantet discusses his Palme d'Or winning school-set drama, The Class, which last year became the first French film to win the top prize at Cannes in over 20 years.
Filmmaking was the not the obvious career choice for Frenchman Laurent Cantet. Both his parents were teachers and he describes himself as "on a leave of absence from teaching." In fact his films usually have some lessons to impart going back to his multi-award winning feature debut Human Resources (1999) which looks at the complicated politics between a working-class father and his executive son. He followed that up with Time Out (2001) - a winner at the Venice Film Festival - about an unemployed man who becomes increasingly alienated from society. More recently there was Heading South (2005), a sort of socially conscious Shirley Valentine following three women on holiday to poverty-stricken Haiti.
The Class consisted of volunteers from the school.
His latest opus The Class, based on an autobiographical novel by François Bégaudeau, goes straight to the heart of his concerns about French society. The students who make up the supporting cast reflect the changing face of a country, one that is culturally diverse and economically divided. When a young, well-intentioned teacher (Bégaudeau essentially playing himself) enters the class, it appears the stage is set for a formulaic tale of a liberal do-gooder who aims to win hearts and minds. However, Cantet's film is far from a love-in, more a subtle critique of the teaching system, and his documentary-like approach also gives it an immediacy and dynamism that lacks in Hollywood's usual take on the classroom drama.
Filming on HD cameras helped Capture the details which make The Class 'feel real'.
Cantet has already been awarded the prestigious Golden Palm at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and earned an Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Film category. He talks to BBC Film Network about his own teaching experience on the film; taking a bunch of regular students from a deprived neighbourhood and turning them into film actors.
The Class is released in UK cinemas on Friday 20th February 2009.
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Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail
The latest in this troublemaking grandma series showcases wonderful African-American actors. Too bad the jokes are so lame.
By now everyone knows Tyler Perry movies are A) review-proof (they're not screened for critics, and they make tons of money on their own, anyway) and B) not made "for" white people, so if white people see them and don't get them, it's because they're, well, white people.
As a white critic, I have mixed feelings about Perry's movies: On the one hand, he gives wonderful actors an opportunity to work, the kind of approbation they don't always get in Hollywood. This time around he's got the subtle, intuitive Derek Luke and Viola Davis, an actress who's been giving extraordinary performances for years and is only just now being recognized by the Hollywood mainstream. (She's been nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in "Doubt.") On the other hand, Perry's movies have crummy production values, stringy plots that go nowhere, lots of lame jokes (among some admittedly funny ones) and, perhaps worst of all, often feature him in multiple roles -- most notably as the troublemaking matriarch Madea, an outsize, silver-haired hellion who scuffles around in her flat granny shoes and giant polyester dresses, stirring up trouble with her good, old-fashioned plain talk.
To put it another way: It's great that Perry has seized opportunity for himself and for the performers he employs. But has he succeeded only in creating a kind of ghetto for black-themed entertainment that's of sub-par quality -- one that, admittedly, makes him a lot of money?
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Wrestling with those questions -- particularly now that we've stepped into the age of Obama, a time when all kinds of stubborn cultural barriers are, at last, being rethought if not actually dismantled -- is far more interesting than actually watching a Tyler Perry movie. "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail" involves two young, successful assistant district attorneys, Joshua and Linda (played, respectively, by Luke and Ion Overman), who are engaged to be married but who hit a rocky patch when Joshua encounters an old friend, Candace (Keshia Knight Pulliam), who's landed herself in deep trouble. Candace has been working the streets, and she has a drug problem, but she keeps refusing anyone who tries to help; those people include Joshua and a tough-love minister, Ellen (Davis), who has experience getting troubled women back on the straight and narrow.
Meanwhile, Madea (played by Perry, who also appears as a crotchety, weed-smoking old-timer named Joe), is getting into all kinds of scrapes. For example, when a snippy white girl steals the parking space she's headed for, she solves the problem by using a forklift. Although she's usually let off the hook by lenient judges, she finally goes up in front of Judge Mathis (playing himself), and he shows no mercy. Her high jinks finally land her in jail, the same facility where, it turns out, Candace has also been incarcerated.
Everything and nothing happens in "Madea Goes to Jail." In addition to the aforementioned prostitutes, lawyers and ministers, there are also scummy white business guys and abusive pimps. The plot involves duplicitousness between lovers, a back story involving a rape and, last but not least, a sassy elderly black woman who has no qualms about driving without a license. The acting isn't the problem here: Luke and Davis play their characters skillfully, as if they've willfully blocked out the ridiculousness of the movie around them. Other notable actors pop up, too, like Vanessa Ferlito (from "Deathproof," the Quentin Tarantino portion of "Grindhouse," who gives a good performance even in a tiny, thankless role. And occasionally, Perry (who is, as usual, both the writer and director here) pulls off a good joke. I laughed when Madea's friend Cora (Tamela J. Mann) tries to instill good Christian values in Madea by showing off the "What Would Jesus Do" bracelet she wears. When a nasty driver cuts in front of the car Cora's driving, Madea cackles, "Did you show him your bracelet?"
But the laughs are few and far between in "Madea Goes to Jail," even when Dr. Phil makes an appearance (playing himself), hoping to help Madea manage her anger and then practically losing his temper himself. "Madea Goes to Jail" will surely make Perry -- and, I hope, his actors -- a lot of money. And as an alternative to the Hollywood mainstream, which doesn't provide many good roles for African-American actors, Perry's movies are at least a stopgap solution. It's just too bad they're not better. [salon.com]
Feb 18, 2009
New 'Transformers 2' Teaser Trailer Lands Online
Will the latest installment be 2009's most successful sequel?
After the successful debut of a teaser trailer during the Super Bowl, a new, longer teaser for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is now available online.
Michael Bay's first Transformers film was one of the biggest box office successes of 2007, with a domestic haul of nearly $320 million. Even though it will be a highly competitive summer, Revenge of the Fallen could easily be one of 2009's biggest hits. The film has the prime release date of Wednesday, June 24 and so far no major summer blockbusters are slated to open that same day.
Check out the HD version over at Yahoo! Movies.
Schwarzenegger Joins Stallone's 'Expendables'
In an incredibly surprising casting move, Sylvester Stallone has reportedly signed Arnold Schwarzenegger for a cameo performance in his upcoming action flick titled The Expendables.
The cast for Expendables is already an action fan's dream come true. Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke have all joined the cast. Fresh of his comeback in The Dark Knight, Eric Roberts has also snagged a part.
The last time that Schwarzenegger appeared on the bigscreen was in the 2004 dud Around the World in 80 Days, which starred Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan. The film managed to bring in only $24 million domestically.
The best DVDs of 2009
"Magnificent Obsession" An overripe Technicolor spectacle from 1954 that launched the A-list careers of both star Rock Hudson and legendary director Douglas Sirk, "Magnificent Obsession" gets a spectacular Criterion Collection restoration that emphasizes Sirk's gorgeous deep-focus compositions and the performances of Hudson and co-star Jane Wyman. You can call it passionate melodrama, exaggerated social satire or Freudian allegory, but this yarn about the careless playboy who A) accidentally causes the death of a beloved surgeon; B) falls for his widow and causes her to go blind; C) wins her love under false pretenses; and D) performs the operation that restores her sight is a rich and immersive viewing experience that fires on all cylinders. Arguably not the greatest Sirk film -- I might incline toward "Written on the Wind" or "Imitation of Life" -- but surely among his most beautiful and memorable. His handling of Hudson and Wyman, who play the ludicrous Lloyd C. Douglas love story (swamped in turgid mid-century Christian self-help philosophy) absolutely straight and with surprising delicacy, is masterful. From a technical point of view the entire production, from Russell Metty's camerawork to Milton Carruth's editing to the "Ode to Joy" remix of Frank Skinner's score, represents '50s Hollywood at its height of craftsmanship. The two-disc set also includes John M. Stahl's 1935 black-and-white version with Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor, which some aficionados prefer and has been unavailable on DVD until now.
"The Quare Fellow" With the wave of "Prisoner"-mania surrounding the recent death of Patrick McGoohan, it's a great moment to remember one of his greatest and least-heralded roles, as the naive Irish prison guard Thomas Crimmin in Arthur Dreifuss' riveting 1962 screen adaptation of Brendan Behan's mordant anti-death-penalty masterpiece. Dreifuss' script adds elements that lapse here and there into drinkin'-and-fightin' Irish caricature, but none of that masks the authenticity of the atmosphere -- the film was shot in Ireland, and partly inside Dublin's historic Kilmainham Gaol -- or McGoohan's brilliance as the country boy forced to face the inhumanity and hypocrisy of a system he thought he believed in. Tremendous supporting performance by Irish writer Walter Macken, in one of his few acting roles, as a heartbroken older guard who refuses to yield his humanity. English actress Sylvia Syms is sexy but a bit out of her depth in the vixen role. Kino International's disc transfer captures all the depth and shadows of Peter Hennessy's superb black-and-white photography.
"Days and Clouds" A middle-class marriage in trouble is one of the staples of postwar European film, so you can't call Italian director Silvio Soldini's take on it profoundly original. For many recession-plagued Americans, in fact, the scene where a real-estate broker advises unemployed executive Michele (Antonio Albanese) and overstressed academic Elsa (Margherita Buy) to lower their asking price by 100,000 euros may hit just a bit too close to home. But this movie was an international art-house hit for a reason, and that reason is the well-matched pair of sterling lead performances, a consistently intelligent and perceptive screenplay and the sympathy and warmth with which Soldini portrays this marriage, even as Michele and Elsa lie, fight, recriminate and do close-to-unforgivable things. I thought I could dip into their story for half an hour and finish it later, but that proved impossible: You'll love this couple and long for both of them to be OK, whether that means together or apart. This is the latest in Film Movement's series of subscription DVDs, which is well worth checking out.
"The Taking of Power by Louis XIV" How does the guy who launched the neorealist movement with ground-level dramas about ruined postwar Europe -- most famously, "Rome, Open City" and "Germany Year Zero" -- move on to a movie about the Sun King's total consolidation of power in himself, circa 1640? Somehow Roberto Rossellini got there. This 1966 production, made ultra-cheap for French TV, was the great Italian director's first feature after his road-to-Damascus moment in the early '60s, when he pronounced that cinema was dead and that its true mission was to educate the public about history rather than entertain. Quite a strange business this movie is too, more focused on the intimate physical details of Louis' reign -- the servants and dogs sleeping on the king's bedroom floor; the learned doctors sniffing a dying man's chamber pot -- than on the court drama involving nobles, ministers and cardinals (oh, and a musketeer named d'Artagnan, who appears briefly). Minor characters sometimes interrupt the action to explain what's going on in expositional asides, and Louis himself is played by Jean-Marie Patte, an unprepossessing mailman (or sales clerk; reports vary) who is always staring offscreen because he doesn't know his lines and must read them off a blackboard. Shot largely in and around the actual palace at Versailles, "Louis XIV" displays Rossellini's ingenious shot construction, remarkable gift for group choreography and focus on the emotional center of each scene. You'd have to say the film fulfills its mission: It's handsome to watch -- the Criterion transfer is, of course, meticulous -- and you'll learn a whole lot about 17th-century French life. And it ardently refuses to abandon its rather dry and distant demeanor and become anything like conventional drama. There is considerable fascination to the arguably misguided spectacle of a great artist making elegant didactics, and if you wish to go deeper still, Criterion's Eclipse label has a new box set offering three of Rossellini's later history films, including the four-hour "Age of the Medici" from 1972.
"Workers for the Good Lord" Before Jean-Claude Brisseau became infamous as the French director convicted of sexually harassing two of the actresses in his erotic film "Secret Things" -- and then went on to make his next erotic film, "Exterminating Angels," as a sort of meta-meditation about that experience -- well, before all that he was actually known in France for having made a damn good movie. "Workers for the Good Lord" is that movie, made in 1999, and while it does have semi-nude women aplenty, it's also a gleeful, anarchistic Robin Hood romp in the spirit of the New Wave, with handsome Stanislas Merhar as a jilted, jaded would-be race driver and full-time narcissist who goes on a crime spree together with a gamine postal worker who loves him and a renegade African prince who is also a rebellious school bureaucrat. In the great French tradition, an homage to earlier filmmaking styles (from Capra to Godard and the avant-garde) and also very much its own eccentric creation. Indispensable for lovers of Gallic film.
"Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Funny Face" Paramount Pictures' Centennial Collection continues with these two well-loved Audrey Hepburn staples and, yes, there are few films more often issued and reissued in every possible home-video format over the years. Still, here they are again, on double-disc sets featuring new high-definition transfers (for both DVD and Blu-ray) and a bunch of special features never seen before. The gorgeous and only slightly silly "Funny Face," with its magical Gershwin numbers (and the highly age-inappropriate coupling of Hepburn with Fred Astaire) has mini-features on co-star Kay Thompson, fashion photography, the VistaVision process used to make the film and Paris in the '50s. "Tiffany's" is even richer, with a making-of featurette, mini-docs on Hepburn and composer Henry Mancini and a convoluted attempt to apologize for Mickey Rooney's offensive Asian character. If you don't own these movies, these are terrific packages; on the other hand, there'll be another reason to reissue them in three or four years.
The Films of Michael Powell Well, two of the great British director's films, anyway -- essentially a miscellaneous double bill of Powell films to which Sony happens to hold the rights. Powell's best-known work, including "The Red Shoes," "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp," "The Small Back Room" and "Peeping Tom," is available from the Criterion Collection. What you get here is one undoubted classic -- the supernatural wartime drama "A Matter of Life and Death" (also known as "Stairway to Heaven"), with David Niven as a British flyer forced to argue his way from heaven back to earth -- and one late-career oddity. That would be "Age of Consent," made by Powell (without longtime co-director Emeric Pressburger) in the relatively hedonistic climate of late-'60s Australia. It stars James Mason as a burned-out painter (based loosely on Aussie artist Norman Lindsay) who finds his muse near the Great Barrier Reef in the form of a comely and uninhibited lass, played by a then-unknown 24-year-old named -- wait for it -- Helen Mirren. The movie's fascinating and a little creepy, tinged with that unmistakable Powell dyspepsia, and there's a terrific interview with Mirren among the extras. [salon.com]
Feb 17, 2009
Movie Review: Confessions of a Shopaholic
Can we call it Consumer-Porn?
Poised for a Valentine's weekend release, the new fashion-centric romcom by Muriel's Wedding director P.J. Hogan is as an odd hybrid of pretty and partially digested. On the heels of He's Just Not That Into You, a film that faced a critical blast to be dwarfed by the fate of Shopaholic, this exercise in capitalist wish fulfillment is not unlike a Depression Era Studio Fantasy. Featuring women who struggle financially only to find happiness in the arms of recession-resistant men and fat-cat magazine publishers [yes, you read that right] who are hunks ready to take massive risks without the slightest R&D, this flick is shakey uplift with minor merits. Shopaholic bandies in the same brand of humiliation-humor that made Sex and the City (and Forgetting Sarah Marshall to provide a masculine equivalent) seem so sincere. That plus the glam of celebrity stylist Patricia Fields are viable draws, just not ones destined to last beyond a two week drop off.
Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a journalist who, from young, has found practicality poorly suited to her. Her parents, warm-hearted spendthrifts (John Goodman and Joan Cusack), were so different from her she sought identification outside of her home and her personal life: primarily through fashion. This is how we gain access to the issue of her addiction, which is handled oddly and intermittently, but with some clarity. What Rebecca is good at (or rather, we learn she's good at it because she writes one article that sweeps the nation), is writing. She pens a piece under the pseudonym "The Girl in the Green Scarf" that uses fashion as a metaphor for investments and in so doing makes the premise of saving money (something we all have within our reach to understand) finally clear to the common man. So while she plays Martin Luther to the financial institution, instructing the masses in the ways of power, she comes slowly unraveled under the weight of her own massive debts. Hypocrisy or irony: Your choice.
Editor Luke Brandon (her opposites-attract love interest played by Hugh Dancy) instructs her in the simple but weighty distinction between cost and value and when her dire debt situation is made public, she ends up pitting her credit issues against his hard-built credibility. The rules of economics are never far from this love story, even if they’re spooned out in easy to digest servings (probably true to the spirit of Rebecca’s writings—which we’re never lucky enough to hear...I wonder why).
It’s easy to see a film that fetishizes YSL and Prada as a slap in the face during economically hard times. Sophie Kinsella’s original books (upon which the film is based) came out in 2000, just shy of the dot com bust. So, why release this title now? Add this question to the morally awkward characterization of the titular Shopaholic as a vivacious, fun-loving, inspiring woman with an uncanny knack for duping her boss and her debt collector (could you call her a con-artist?) and you’ve really got something to ponder. That Rebecca is most creative when cornered by money troubles is a value at odds with our more common view of commerce (and by extension civilization) as something that sucks out our spirits. But this film, with workmanlike direction and occasionally pronounced cinematography is a can of worms squirming in opposing directions. Character motivations are continually hard to gauge outside of the obvious melodrama at play, and the chemistry between the main love interests relies so heavily on head tilting you would think the actors suffer from Swimmer’s Ear. Thin on plot and heavy with criminally underused talent (Lynn Redgrave plays “drunk woman in the bathroom,” I’m not kidding) the film is a trifle, but if we found that sort of thing comforting in 1931, we’re likely to find it somewhat comforting today too.
Distributor: Disney
Cast: Isla Fischer, Hugh Dancy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Krysten Ritter, Joan Cusack and John Goodman
Director: P.J. Hogan
Screenwriters: Tracey Jackson, Kayla Alpert and Tim Firth
Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Rating: PG for some mild language and thematic elements.
Running time: 105
Release date: February 13, 2009
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The Pink Panther 2
Not even as funny as the joke that ends “dead ant, dead ant”
With this sequel to the 2006 release that both reinvented and relaunched the original Blake Edwards film series, Steve Martin officially becomes the first actor since Peter Sellers to earn a second stint in a Pink Panther film. Given the series’ turbulent history of false starts and failed restarts, that’s no small achievement. Unfortunately, the film itself is. Geared primarily to the teens and preteens for whom there is no Inspector Jacques Clouseau, this, the eleventh Panther picture (for those keeping count), is vapid, low-grade slapstick, hopelessly dull yet innocuous, designed more for marketability than entertainment so as to coast comfortably through two middling weekends of respectable pre-Oscar counter programming before word of mouth drops its third weekend drop-off off a cliff.
Having already dispensed with the Sellers comparisons in the previous picture, Martin, who again takes a co-writer credit (this time alongside the screenwriting team of Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter) has clearly grown comfortable molding Clouseau to his own particular comedic proclivities, which is to say the kind of slapstick and relentless mugging that he was supposed to have left buried in the ’80s. Indeed, the resurrection of Clouseau has likewise marked the resurrection of an archival Martin that, in the edgier era of Judd Apatow, Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller, feels almost anachronistically juvenile.
The story once again centers on the theft of the Pink Panther diamond—one of several precious artifacts that have been stolen by a legendary thief known simply as The Tornado. Assigned to an international “dream team” of detectives that includes the suave Italian Vicenzo (Andy Garcia), Japanese tech genius Kenji (Yuki Matsuzaki) and pompous Englishman Pepperidge (Alfred Molina), Clouseau initially does little but aggravate his colleagues with his apparent incompetence and clumsy bumbling. Of course, as per usual, bumbling is all part of a sleuthing process whereby, somehow, Clouseau always manages to prevail.
Part of the problem here is that the formula that once worked so well for Edwards and Sellers (but less well for Edwards without Sellers) feels especially uninspired in second-hand hands. The previous film—directed in predictably lackluster fashion by Shawn Night at the Museum Levy—wasn’t much better, but received a certain amount of leeway from critics and audiences willing to give the new Martinized Clouseau the benefit of the doubt. In the hands of Pink Panther 2 director Harald Zwart, the Norwegian-born helmer of both indie gems (One Night at McCool’s) and studio duds (Agent Cody Banks), the institutionalization of those flaws makes the new picture aggravating at best. With the exception of only one very clever gag—a restaurant scene involving a tumbling wall of wine bottles—there’s nothing here that rises even to the level of a bad Three Stooges short. Martin tries too hard, John Cleese—stepping into the Dreyfus role played previously by Kevin Kline—is painfully miscast, while returning cast members Jean Reno and Emily Mortimer—both exceptionally talented performers when given good material—are frustratingly underused. Indian superstar Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, here appearing in her first major Hollywood studio film, is a luminous presence until she’s actually asked to do something, at which point the picture collapses as badly on her as it does everyone else. Only Garcia and Molina manage to acquit themselves respectably by elevating badly written parts that essentially have nowhere to go but up.
Fans of cameos get a few modest payoffs courtesy of Lily Tomlin, Geoffrey Palmer, Jeremy Irons and French recording star Johnny Hallyday (“Man on the Train”), though even these appearances seem forced and unnecessary.
Unless 12-year-old boys have suddenly developed taste and discernment, however, this should all add up to box office earnings sufficiently respectable to justify a third infliction of the same, which, in keeping up with its developmentally-challenged audience, just may see fit to elevate its comedy several notches to finally include fart jokes.
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Cast: Steve Martin, Jean Reno, Alfred Molina, Emily Mortimer, Aishwarya Rai Bachchnan, Andy Garcia, John Cleese and Lily Tomlin
Director: Harald Zwart
Screenwriter: Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber and Steve Martin
Producers: Robert Simonds
Genre: Comedy
Rating: PG for some suggestive humor, brief mild language and action.
Running time: 92 min.
Release date: February 6, 2009
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