Radically different from the previous three 'Pink Panther' movies, this popular fourth entry takes the story to absurdist extremes with a now completely mad Chief Inspector Dreyfus escaping from an insane asylum and holding the whole world hostage with a doomsday device, demanding Clouseau's life. The extra screen time that Herbert Lom gets as a result of this plot deflection is welcome given that he was one of the main highlights of the previous two 'Pink Panther' films. The multiple failed attempts by international assassins to be the successful one to kill Clouseau also leads to several funny sequences, the best of which involves some madness in the restrooms at Oktoberfest, which of course Clouseau is completely oblivious to. While his parodying of a megalomaniacal Bond villain is spot-on, something is definitely lost though by having Lom insane from the get-go as there is no delicious gradual descent into madness as in the two earlier films. The film also unsteadily walks a tightrope between absurdist lunacy and simple inane silliness and a number of gags backfire as a result of the filmmakers pushing things too far (the climax in particular is very over-the- top). And yet, for all its detriments, 'Strikes Again' is a hard film not to warm to since the filmmakers show such obvious passion for doing something different with series and as Lom proves himself to be worthy of every extra percentage of screen time that he is given. It is probably a film that is worth giving a spin even if one disliked the first three films -- that's how different it is.
Review of The Pink Panther Strikes Again
