Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Son Of The Pink Panther

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Son Of The Pink Panther



    Released by: Kino Studio Classics
    Released on: June 27th, 2017.
    Director: Black Edwards
    Cast: Roberto Benigni, Herbert Lom, Claudia Cardinale, Burt Kwouk, Robert Davi
    Year: 1993
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movie:

    The last of the Pink Panther movies to be directed by series creator Blake Edwards, Son Of The Pink Panther opens with a scene where Princess Yasmin of Lugash (Debrah Farentino) is kidnapped off the coast of France by a nefarious gang of terrorists led by a man named Hans Zarba (Robert Davi). They intend to use her as bait in order to force her father to step down and let a general that they have ties to take his place.

    Police Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) is asked to solve the case and in doing so, has a chance run in with a bumbling local named Jacques Gambrelli (Roberto Benigni) who in turn sees the princess and presumes her to be someone she is not. Regardless, Hans knows that Gambrelli has seen what he has seen, and he puts out a hit on him. Dreyfus follows him and winds up saving him from the assailant and, after driving him home, meets Jacques mother, Maria (Claudia Cardinale), whom he recognizes from a case he worked decades ago. It is then that Dreyfus realizes Jacques is the late Inspector Clouseau's illegitimate son. When Dreyfus gets injured in another attempt on Gambrelli's live, he winds up hospitalized while Gambrelli decides this is his chance to live up to his father's legacy, setting out to save the princess with some 'help' along the way from Cato Fong (Burt Kwouk) and Professor Auguste Balls (Graham Stark).

    The good? Well, casting Roberto Benigni in the lead role was a good choice on Edwards' part. He's got a genuine knack for comedic timing and physical comedy and his accent means he's a natural for the accent jokes that were a big part of the Sellers' films success. Additionally, it's fun seeing Robert Davi in the picture, well cast as the terrorist leader in the type of role he's quite good at handling. That's about it though. Lom, Kwouk, Stark and even Cardinale are all fine in their roles but at this point they're more or less on auto pilot. That's not to say that they're unwatchable, but it does mean that their characters aren't doing anything that we haven't really seen them do before.

    Edwards does try to spice things up a bit here and there, adding a harder edge to the opening scene and positing the terrorists as more dangerous than your average Pink Panther villains. This was likely an attempt to bring the series into the nineties after the fairly middling success of the last film, Curse Of The Pink Panther, made ten years prior. It was a nice idea, but it doesn't really work that well. Begnini feels like he's pulling back, never going as close to the lunatic fringe as he could and should have, and the movie doesn't really give him enough to do in this regard to allow him to make his character much more than a mediocre imitation of the original.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Son Of The Pink Panther arrives on a 25GB Blu-ray disc from Kino Lorber framed at 2.35.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer. No complaints here - the image is clean, sporting good detail and texture throughout and virtually no print damage. There are no noticeable issues with compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction and color reproduction looks spot on.

    The only audio option on the disc is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track with removable subtitles provided in English only. The audio is free of any issues and it offers up clean, clear and easily discernable dialogue alongside properly balanced levels and some decent depth.

    Extras start off with a commentary features Jason Simos of the Peter Sellers Appreciation Society. Although there's an unfortunate amount of dead air on this track, when Simos is engaged he's got some interesting insight. He covers the casting of the picture, the locations, how the film ties into the other films in the series, what works and what doesn't.

    Kino has also included a Making Off featurette from 1993 that runs seven minutes. Here we get some clips from the feature alongside some quick but welcome cast and crew interviews in which those involved with the production explain how they tried to tie this into the older films while still creating a relaunch of sorts.

    Rounding out the extras are two deleted scenes, two different theatrical trailers, menus and chapter selection.

    The Final Word:

    Son Of The Pink Panther is the best of the three films mad without Sellers but it's still far from great, never exploiting its lead actor's inherent 'wackiness' enough to take things as far as we want. Kino give the picture a more than respectable Blu-ray presentation and provide a few welcome extras as well.

    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!






















      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X