i wonder why it flopped - The Pink Panther 2 (2009) Discussion

[–] wallacesawyer 16 years ago

I wonder if this particular brand of comedy is dying. Much of the PANTHER films feel very Charlie Chaplin. And look at the comedy films today, bathroom humour, sex, gay jokes, alcohol, hot women.

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[–] puggly-1 16 years ago

I agree, I think the more traditional comedy we saw in the Pink Panther Series is no longer a popular, as comedies full of "sex" jokes.
As for this film floping compared to the first I'm not sure. Maybe people were disapointed with the first and therefore didn't bother with the sequel. Or it could be due to a lack of promotion, especially here in the UK.

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[–] RobBase086-1 15 years ago

A lot of it you have to blame todays generation I hate to say it because they did not grow up watching films like the original Pink Panther and other slap stick comedies.

My little sister who is now 21 years old when she was a little girl she would watch whatever I was watching and for a few years she was a Three Stooges fan. Now if I was to ask her to watch that she would not be interested at all now. See todays programming has gotten away from the classic movies that we all grew up on.

I can remember growing up in the 70's I was watching movies from the 30's on up to like the 60's. Then when the 80's came I saw movies from the 70's being added into the programming. Once the late 80's hit a lot of network and stations stopped showing the classic movies that ranged from the 70's on up to the late 80's. That is my theory on it.

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[–] Hazekel 16 years ago

I think the simple truth is that movies are made or lost in the opening weeks. When the first Pink Panther remake came out people were hungry for another Clousea and Steve Martin is a brand name comedian, but even though the first one made goo d money, people did not really like it. I did not go see Pink Panther 2 in the theater because I thought it would be bad like the first one. I was wrong. Pink Panther 2 was a return to the Sellers' days (but not quite as good of course), but people didn't trust seeing it in the theaters. That is my take. I might become popular as DVD via word of mouth though.

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[–] wallacesawyer 16 years ago

I saw the film in the theatre, when it was Four Dollar Tuesday. I enjoyed the last one with Steve, it introduced me to the series. I had not seen any of the live-action movies before, but do remember watching the cartoon as a kid. Of course maybe four other people saw it at the same theatre.

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[–] bing-57 16 years ago

> I willing 2 bet that Beyonce attracted alot of people for the first movie

I doubt that. Not very many people in the history of movies have gone to see a movie just because some famous singer had a cameo and was trying to act.

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[–] FadedEnvy 14 years ago

I think Beyonce's association with the first film did in fact have a lot to do with the success of it. For starters she had a huge song/video from the soundtrack that was #1 for 5 weeks which was excellent promotion for the film. And despite what people may think of her acting Beyonce is one of the few popstars who's name can draw people to theaters (see "Obsessed").

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[–] Scifi71 16 years ago

Beyonce ran like hell from this script.

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[–] classOFfitness 15 years ago

then that might be, two reason why it flopped.

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[–] matthewgeary87 14 years ago

What was the budget of this movie? I think i remember reading $30-40 million so it grossed about $75 million meaning it just about made a profit. They wont be in any hurry to make a 3rd. If this one had taken over $100 million it would probably be a different story.

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[–] spamcity 14 years ago

It's got nothing to do with the public not liking good old fashioned funny movies without toilet humour, swearing, drugs and sex (Look how well the average sweet rom-com tends to do!)

It is to do with the fact that Steve Martin's Pink Panther films were extremely poor on almost every level.
Weak jokes, flimsy plots, and actors who are obviously only there to bank a paycheck and get their faces on a major release movie once again. (Stand up John Cleese and Andy Garcia.)

Although the old Peter Sellers movies were basically old fashioned slapstick farces, they credited the audience with a bit of intelligence... Trusted that they would be able to follow a good plot, and assembled a team of actors from the U.S.A., Britain and Europe who were masters at comic delivery.

The Steve Martin movies have set their target audience as the average 12 year old, with obvious lame, over the top gags to match.

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[–] Norse_Sage 13 years ago

I think this movie flopped for one reason only:
The fallout from "The Pink Panther" (2005).

The 2005 had all the potetial in thew orld, but alas, it squandered it by going all over the place instead of being tighter. The tone and the charicature that is Steve Martin's Clouseau seemed aimed at little children, while the humor in large parts was geared to adults. This appraoch works for Pixar, but here it backfired. While that movie did okay financially, it left a sour taste in the mouths of quite a few people.

Come 2009, and The Pink Panther 2. It is much tighter, knows what it wants, who it is aimed at, and goes for it. It does its job, and is very much so the movie we should have gotten in 2005. But audiences don't know this, being burned the last time, they stay away in droves this time.

Too bad, becuase this one delivered.

Tesla was robbed!

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[–] ubcool 13 years ago

It being terrible and even less funnier then the 2006 version might have something to do with it too.

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[–] Norse_Sage 13 years ago

Your opinion only.
Quite a few people thought the 2006 was unfunny as hell, and that the sequel represented a HUGE step up.

Tesla was robbed!

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[–] ubcool 13 years ago

Pink panther 2 , 12% rotten tomatoes, 36/100 metacritic, imdb 5.2

its pretty much everybody's dude.

they were both lame, but at least the first one had a few funny scenes like the classic hamburger one.

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[–] clark_gillies 11 years ago

Agree, difference between the two is night and day.

First movie always came across as VERY child-like movie aimed at adults, but really failed to get this across.... whereas the 2nd one came across as very adult like.

Marketing for the first one came across as very bright and fluffy like, with the biggest pop star in the world involved.... that did not interest me in the slightest, but being a fan of the original series, I was drawn to watch this.

If the 2nd one had came out first rather than the original one, then things might have been very different.

Also this was Steve Martins last role of the dice to get back to his glory days.....Bowfinger (though developed a cult following) was so-so, Cheaper by the Dozen was good, but not to the levels expected (then the 2nd bombed) he was a long way from his 1980's and early 90's glory days, and a Pink Panther reboot was his big hope.

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[–] zephyrus17 13 years ago

What irked me in the film was the blatent way it slapped itself across the cheek. In the film, you have the stereotype English teacher Berenger telling Clouseau that it's not good to stereotype. But they still cast the Italian as the flirt/romantic, English as the cocky/big mouth, and Japanese as the wonder whiz kid.

Another thing is the plethora of useless scenes such as the shampoo scene, and in a greater sense, the whole Ponton kicked out of home stuff too. It all just didn't make any sense.

Finally, the case closing felt too much like a deus ex machina

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