The real question with movies like this has to be first, how good could it really have been, honestly? The original Pink Panther movies with Peter Sellers were on the whole no masterpieces in themselves, especially the sequels. Honestly the only things I missed in this remake (remembering that Burt Kwouk and Herbert Lom came later in the series for all those IMDb whiners …) are the things you can’t replace – Peter Sellers’ performance and Blake Edwards’ sense of class. Henry Mancini’s score is used pretty well (better than the passing glimpse we got of the Herbie theme in Fully Loaded, for example), but Christophe Beck’s techno updating of the music in places totally betrays the obvious (not to mention futile) attempt to bring it to the kids of today. Likewise, the production design, right down to the look of the characters themselves (oh, look, it’s Steve Martin with something under his nose), could’ve used a little more dedication. Kevin Kline and Martin do a decent enough job, and Jean Reno escapes the movie entirely untarnished, while Beyoncé simply does Goldmember again. The real success here is director Shawn Levy’s, and I knew he could pull this movie off the day I saw Just Married. The slapstick here brought me near close to tears in places, especially the rehash of the classic globe gag. So aside from the obvious absence of Sellers and the irreplacable 60s vibe, honestly? This was as good as it was ever going to be, and I wouldn’t mind another helping.