# Poll: Inspector Clouseau: Steve Martin, yea or nay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 16, 2005, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447 "2005-10-16T06:07:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/21 "2005-10-17T03:05:56Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > Nay – and I can’t imagine why Steve Martin is doing this stuff instead of something original. I’m not arguing this looks awful, but he _is_ still doing original work. I’m looking forward to the movie [Shopgirl](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338427/), based on his short novel. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/22 "2005-10-17T03:20:25Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > I’m not arguing this looks awful, but he _is_ still doing original work. I’m looking forward to the movie [Shopgirl](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338427/), based on his short novel. Sorry to be the first to [let the air out of your balloon](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shopgirl/). The consensus out of Toronto was also not good. (And it’s also not truly original, in book or movie form. Which is part of the problem.) ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/23 "2005-10-17T03:25:53Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Sorry to be the first to [let the air out of your balloon](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shopgirl/). The consensus out of Toronto was also not good. (And it’s also not truly original, in book or movie form. Which is part of the problem.) Sorry; don’t buy it. I mean if it’s bad it’s bad, but at least it’s not _Cheaper by the Dozen_ or _The Pink Panther_. But I’ve heard more good things than the number of bad things on that site about it. Also, I’m not following your statement about originality… it’s based on his own novella… what’s not original about that? ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/24 "2005-10-17T05:57:17Z")
:mad: Where’s Cato?! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/25 "2005-10-17T07:53:02Z")
He had a better agent. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/26 "2005-10-17T08:22:19Z")
If Peter Sellers had never existed, this movie would at very best, merely elicit a _‘meh’_. But of course he did, and he made such an outstanding character out of Clouseau that nobody is ever going to surpass it - there is and can be only one Clouseau; Sellers’ Clouseau. It’s pointless performing the role if you cannot perfectly imitate Sellers - you will be weighed in the scales and found wanting And it’s also pointless if you **can** imitate Sellers - you will bring precisely nothing to the role. Martin of course falls into the first of those two categories; trying - and failing; the attempt falls embarrassingly and painfully flat. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/27 "2005-10-17T13:51:33Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > :mad: > Where’s Cato?! :mad: I read on AICN a while ago that Jaclie Chan was originally cast to play Kato but that Steve Martin had the character cut from the film because he (Martin) did not want to be upstaged. I guess there’s a new character played by Jean Reno (who’d have made a better Clouseau than Martin) who is supposed to be Clouseau’s sparring partner but from the trailer it looks like Clouseau attacks _him_ at random times, which makes no sense and is a perfect example of everything that’s wrong with remakes. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/28 "2005-10-17T14:51:22Z")
I loved the Pink Panther series with Sellers because Sellers made you (or at least me) identify with and care for Clouseau. He was an incompetent in a world of insanity and evil. He was a French Don Quoixte. You always felt for the inspector whether his wife was cheating on him with a jewel thief, or he was stepping out of a car into a fountain or he was forced to drive down a crowded street nude. He was like Chaplin’s Little Tramp. He wasn’t the brightest bulb in the house, but God did he try. That always came through. Incidentally, I think that’s part of the reason why The Jerk, Roxanne and Trains, Plains and Automoiles worked too. Granted, all I have seen is the trailer, but that gave the impression that Martin’s character was trying to “be” funny rather than being a character lost in a world beyond his grasp. TV ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/29 "2005-10-17T15:02:27Z")
> [@TV time](#): > > Granted, all I have seen is the trailer, but that gave the impression that Martin’s character was trying to “be” funny rather than being a character lost in a world beyond his grasp. I agree; it’s like aliens tried to duplicate the thing without understanding (or being _able to understand_) what it was actually about. Either that, or it’s like Steve Martin sitting on Peter Sellers’ gravestone, masturbating - I can’t decide which. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/30 "2005-10-17T15:09:41Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > Also, I’m not following your statement about originality… it’s based on his own novella… what’s not original about that? Just because someone writes something, doesn’t make it original if _it’s been done before_. Note the bit in my post “in book or movie form”. Telling me that it was based on his book is not new information. So **obviously** … I was talking about containing new, original _concepts_. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/31 "2005-10-18T02:46:36Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Just because someone writes something, doesn’t make it original if _it’s been done before_. Note the bit in my post “in book or movie form”. Telling me that it was based on his book is not new information. So **obviously** … > > I was talking about containing new, original _concepts_. Um, I read your post. Not to hijack the thread or anything, but you are aware that there’s only like a handful of truly original stories in existence, and everything we’ve seen for centuries is simply variations on a theme, yes? So to imply that an original work is not original just because it’s yet another “relationship” movie (or whatever) is kind of… well, not very original. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/32 "2005-10-18T02:57:29Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > So to imply that an original work is not original just because it’s yet another “relationship” movie (or whatever) is kind of… well, not very original. Please note that I neither stated nor implied anything regarding being “yet another” anything. Please avoid putting words into other people’s mouths. Take a quick peek at the RottenTomatoes review page. These are people who know firsthand that “Hollywood is out of Ideas” and only mention lack of originality when it screams it. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/33 "2005-10-18T03:24:42Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > And it’s also not truly original… > [@ftg](#): > > Just because someone writes something, doesn’t make it original _if it’s been done before._ > [@ftg](#): > > I was talking about containing new, original concepts. > [@ftg](#): > > Please note that I neither stated nor implied anything regarding being “yet another” anything. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/34 "2005-10-18T03:30:01Z")
That didn’t look that bad. The part with the badge got a laugh out of me. I doubt I’ll shell out the bucks to see it in the theater, though. 'Course, I never really cared for any of the original _Pink Panther_ movies, so I don’t have to feel like that’s hanging over the whole thing. I’m a much bigger fan of Steve Martin than I ever was of Peter Sellers. Hell, I’m a much bigger fan of _Kevin Kline_ than I ever was of Peter Sellers. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447/35 "2005-10-18T05:23:47Z")
I saw the trailer and it looked terrible. It just doesn’t seem like a movie that needs an update. I really have nothing against Steve Martin, but thinking he can fill Peter Sellers’ shoes? No chance. The studio pushed the release from last august (2005) to february 10 2006. That doesn’t sound like a vote of confidence to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-inspector-clouseau-steve-martin-yea-or-nay/326447.md?page=1)