Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Yes, Blake Edwards keeps repeating the same gag over and over. How many times do former Chief Inspector Dreyfus and the current Chief Inspector Clouseau have to fall into the water? In Dreyfus's case, it's a duck pond, and in Clouseau's case, it's a castle moat, but I count at least eight in this movie. In the end of "Return of the Pink Panther", the audience saw Dreyfus in a mental institution which is where he is preparing for a hearing to be released from here, every day in every way "feeling better and better". It's obvious that in a world without Clouseau, Dreyfus would be a completely sane man, but like that one co-worker nobody can stand (but can't get rid of), Clouseau is the Christmas Fruit Cake that keeps coming and coming every year. Clouseau makes the mistake of coming to see Dreyfus on the day of his hearing and makes the matters worse, driving Dreyfus back over the cuckoo's nest and more determined than ever to kill Clouseau, and destroy the world in the process if he has to!References to Lom's earlier roles as Napoleon and the Phantom of the Opera are made here as part of a loving tribute, and as a result, Lom pretty much ends up stealing the film, reminding me of one of those delicious old movie serial villains you hiss at but somehow admire for their raw determination to reach an evil goal. There's no pink panther diamond here, only the visual of the pink panther in the opening and closing credits haunting Clouseau through some very clever movie moments, one having Mr. Pink in Julie Andrews' Maria Von Trapp on the hillside postulant dress. Andrews makes a brief vocal appearance, having recorded "Until You Love Me" and seeing her voice played back at a different scene for the drag bar sequence with Michael Robbins in hideous drag lip-sinking to the record as he makes his moves on Sellers. It's a rare 70's glimpse into a gay establishment, filled with stereotypes yet not offensively done. The yellow face references to Cato (Burt Kwouk) remain and might draw some awkwardness, but it's part of the period, and who can deny the hysterical antics between Clouseau and his hysterically funny, if violent, valet? The scenes at the Oktoberfest come off very well too, with a German song that sounds like "Booby Bundy" playing in the background as a large hitman in drag with daggers in his falsies stalks Sellers. Omar Sharif makes a brief cameo as the Egyptian hit man and is very funny, although I found Lesley-Anne Down's appearances as the sexy Russian spy distracting and the one element that slows down the movie to a hault. The castle sequences are hysterical, especially the famous bit with aged hotel clerk Harold Berens, Sellers in disguise as a dentist, and Lom's attempts at torturing one of his kidnapping victims. Some audiences today might find the erasing of the United Nations building a little too close to the destruction of the World Trade Center 25 years after this was made, but representations of some political figures of this time (Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger) are very funny. This is a goof-ball picture if there ever was one, and one of the best comedies of the 1970's that stands out from the other weaker entries in the series. Edwards went all out with this one, and even if some of the gags just seem desperate, there's a charm to them that can't be denied.

One of the funniest films in the "Pink Panther" series: the best parts (the Poirot-style interrogation, Clouseau's attempts to enter the castle, the laughing gas, "does your dog bite?", "it was hard in the Resistance but not as hard as it is now", etc.) are hilarious, there is considerable cleverness in many of the elaborately staged gags, and although there are dry stretches, they are fewer than in the other series entries. Peter Sellers is in good form, and Herbert Lom is every bit his equal in laugh-getting. The cinephilic animated credits sequence is wonderful. *** out of 4.

We thought this was hilarious when it was run endlessly on HBO in the early 1980's, and we quoted it all the time: "Does your deug baht?" "Do you have a reum?". I was looking forward to seeing it again recently, but thought it fell rather flat when I finally did. It has its moments, and Herbert Lom is entertaining as "the lunatic Dreyfus", but it's not the gem I remember. (How's this for a line I bet they wish they could take back in a screwball comedy: on the topic of the disintegration of the UN, Dreyfus screams, "I want a crater! Wreckage! Twisted metal! Something the world will never forget!" In another couple decades the Twin Towers would fill that request for real.) The end picks up a little bit after a sagging middle (I thought that bedroom ambush between Clouseau and Cato would never end), so it's worth hanging on to get to the finale which has some clever stuff in it. Not as good as I remember it, though.

This is the fifth film in the original Pink Panther series, returning Peter Sellers as Jacques Clouseau, who finds himself a target from the mentally-challenged Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom). The intrigue starts when Dreyfus builds a Doomsday machine and then demand someone kills Clouseau, or else he will use the machine to destroy cities. This leads to endless fun adventures where 22 assassins from all over the world are tracking Clouseau, while he himself tries to find Dreyfus and commit him back to the asylum. Sellers' continued ineptness and bungling personality as Clouseau make this a very hilarious film as physical comedy and slapstick humor fill up the screen endlessly. The obsessive Charles Dreyfus brilliantly demonstrates how one's ineptness and clumsiness could drive someone off-the-charts, making him a pretty formidable villain in the film. Burt Kwok as Cato Fong gave another memorable and hilarious performance as Clousseau's servant/sidekick and Leslie-Anne Down as Olga gave a charming performance opposite Clouseau. The fun crime story, adventures, and non-stop physical comedy continue in this film, along with Henry Mancini's memorable music themes and the animated opening and ending titles featuring the Pink Panther cartoon character, with some great direction from Blake Edwards. Grade B+