The Pink Panther 2

Modestly amusing sequel in which bumbling, but ultimately brilliant Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin) joins an international dream team of detectives (Alfred Molina, Andy Garcia, Yuki Matsuzaki and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) to solve the theft of various national treasures, a pursuit aided by his loyal assistant (Jean Reno) and his secretly beloved secretary (Emily Mortimer). Despite a lavishly talented cast, which also includes John Cleese and Lily Tomlin, director Harald Zwart's addition to the decades-old franchise has little more to offer than some effectively chaotic slapstick, though the humor in comic scenes featuring a kindly fictional pope is at Clouseau's expense, not the church's. An implied premarital encounter and some sexual and mildly irreverent humor. A-III -- adults. (PG) 2009

The Pink Panther 2 (Full Review)

Where perennially bumbling but ultimately brilliant French police Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin) goes, comic mayhem follows. So it has been for more than four decades, and so it proves again in the modestly amusing sequel "The Pink Panther 2" (MGM-Columbia).

This follow-up to Martin's 2006 revival of the character immortalized by Peter Sellers sees Clouseau reduced to traffic duty by his constantly thwarted archenemy, Chief Inspector Dreyfus (an enjoyably apoplectic John Cleese replacing Kevin Kline in the last film). But the theft of various national treasures, like the Magna Carta (of all things), by a master criminal called the Tornado leads to the formation of an international dream team of detectives to which Clouseau is appointed over Dreyfus' fuming objections.

When a prized French artifact, the rose-tinted gem from which the series takes its title, is added to the list of purloined items, Clouseau's new colleagues -- Italian sleuth Vincenzo (Andy Garcia), British forensics expert Pepperidge (Alfred Molina), Japanese computer specialist Kenji (Yuki Matsuzaki) and Indian Tornado authority Sonia (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) -- join him in Paris to continue the hunt.

Also helping in the investigation are Clouseau's loyal assistant Ponton (Jean Reno) and the inspector's secretary -- and initially secret love interest -- Nicole (Emily Mortimer).

Despite its lavishly talented cast, which also includes Lily Tomlin as an enforcer of political correctness at Clouseau's office and Jeremy Irons as a suspect, director Harald Zwart's addition to the franchise, while genial, has little more to offer than some effectively chaotic slapstick, such as a scene in which Clouseau desperately juggles falling wine bottles after knocking over a restaurant wine rack.

Though there are references to a single past encounter between Clouseau and Nicole, their romance develops in a morally positive direction, and a marital spat that leads Ponton to move in with Clouseau, bringing along two rambunctious, karate-loving sons and a pet dog, is ultimately resolved in a family-friendly manner. (Free-for-all karate battles between Clouseau and the lads continue a long-standing motif which once pitted Sellers' Clouseau against his manservant, Cato, played by Burt Kwouk.)

The fact that one of the missing objects is the Shroud of Turin, revered by many Catholics as the burial cloth of Jesus, raises issues of good taste. But scenes set in the Vatican and featuring a fictional pope whose ring of office has been lifted while he slept, seek laughs at Clouseau's cost -- he cluelessly addresses the kindly pontiff as "Mr. Pope" -- rather than the church's.

Such brushes with irreverence and some scenes involving sexual humor indicate adult viewership, although crass language and profanity are laudably absent.

Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• A-IV**
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.