People are voting emotionally.

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

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

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Radically different from the previous three 'Pink Panther' movies, this popular fourth entry takes the story to absurdist extremes with a now completely mad Chief Inspector Dreyfus escaping from an insane asylum and holding the whole world hostage with a doomsday device, demanding Clouseau's life. The extra screen time that Herbert Lom gets as a result of this plot deflection is welcome given that he was one of the main highlights of the previous two 'Pink Panther' films. The multiple failed attempts by international assassins to be the successful one to kill Clouseau also leads to several funny sequences, the best of which involves some madness in the restrooms at Oktoberfest, which of course Clouseau is completely oblivious to. While his parodying of a megalomaniacal Bond villain is spot-on, something is definitely lost though by having Lom insane from the get-go as there is no delicious gradual descent into madness as in the two earlier films. The film also unsteadily walks a tightrope between absurdist lunacy and simple inane silliness and a number of gags backfire as a result of the filmmakers pushing things too far (the climax in particular is very over-the- top). And yet, for all its detriments, 'Strikes Again' is a hard film not to warm to since the filmmakers show such obvious passion for doing something different with series and as Lom proves himself to be worthy of every extra percentage of screen time that he is given. It is probably a film that is worth giving a spin even if one disliked the first three films -- that's how different it is.

"Sinister Forces are at work" - Yes, Blake Edwards, Henry Mancini, and Peter Sellers combine their incomparable talents once again in, what is for me, the most hilarious, farcial, and funniest Pink Panther movie. Don't get me wrong - A Shot in the Dark is the best of the films. No doubt here or argument either. But this one is my favorite(not a lot more but I grew up with this one...so nostalgia has a firm hold on my viewpoint). This time around Chief Inspector Drefuss(actually former Chief Inspector Drefuss) is languishing in a mental facility. He appears to be cured of his obsessive hatred for Clouseau(the current Chief Inspector). On the day he is to be released, Clouseau pays him one of the funniest visits ever. We get head hit with croquet ball, stepping on a rake, falling into the water - twice - a rubberized arrow in the forehead, a bench that falls on one side when one person gets up, and more. That is before we even get to the credits. By the end of this opening scene Herbert Lom as Drefuss is all ready gesticulating wildly, rolling his eyes and having the best screen nervous tick I have ever seen. Well the gorgeously animated and scored credits come on and then we get a hilarious view of Clouseau's home, the inevitable "meeting" between him and Cato - and then Clouseau dressed as the Hunchback of Notre dame whilst Drefuss tries to kill him from the floor underneath. Gold. The rest of the film goes on with similar scenes. The scene where Couseau addresses a group of servants at an English manor(yes, the parallel bars), the one where he is at the all-men's club, the Octoberfest(a killer montage), or while he is trying to scale a German castle and when he finally gets in dressed as an old dentist. Sellers, Edwards, and Mancini and a host of great comedic talents like Kwouk, Lom, Leonard Rossiter, Colin Blakely, Andre Maranne(as Francois), Grahm Stark(as the man who does not have a dog that bites), and Michael Robbins as "the incomparable Aimsley Jarvis(great character bit here - I always laugh when he "belts" out "Until you loved me") make this a welcoming, zany, laugh-riot. I loved this movie when it came out and I was not quite ten. I saw it again recently and loved it all the more. It is almost flawless with its non-stop barrage of intended laughs. The guys playing the President of the United States and Henry Kissinger even do a great job lampooning them! Let's not forget Lesley-Anne Down as Olga. Breath-taking even if it is a small role(that is Omar Shariff as her initial great lover). Edwards really uses lots of farcial techniques in this one like the scene with Olga in Clouseau's bed or the grappling of the castle scene around the moat. Add Henry Mancini's beautiful score(particularly in those two scenes) and it is comedic ballet. What can I say about Sellers? He is genius personified. Lom is great. In many ways this is his film. He looks so mad. He plays one of the best insane men in screen history for my money. How about the nitrous oxide scene..."It's Clouseau...Kill him!" Great stuff.

Former Chief Inspector Dreyfus is totally crazy and wants to kill Inspector Jacques Clouseau.He escapes from the psychiatric hospital and comes up with an evil plan.He forces a nuclear physicist professor to build a doomsday weapon.Can Clouseau escape Dreyfus' deadly plan? Or will he die of his own clumsiness? That, and much more you will find out in The Pink Panther Strikes Again.Blake Edwards, who we sadly lost at 88 last December, is the director of the movie, naturally.It's from 1976 and it's the fifth film in the series.Peter Sellers is once again on a roll as Clouseau, despite the fact he was in ill health and not the easiest person to work with.You've got to love Herbert Lom as Dreyfus with his eye twitching.Colin Blakely is great as Alec Drummond.Leonard Rossiter is excellent as Superintendent Quinlan.Lesley-Anne Down is quite sexy as Olga Bariosova.Burt Kwouk is fantastic as the attacking manservant Cato.Richard Vernon and Briony McRoberts are very good as Dr Hugo Fassbender and his daughter Margo.Dick Crockett is superb as The President, who looks a lot like Gerald Ford.Same thing with Byron Kane, whose Secretary of State character looks a lot like Henry Kissinger.Michael Robbins gives a great performance as Ainsley Jarvis.Julie Andrews is heard as "his" singing voice.Omar Sharif gives a brief but memorable performance as Egyptian Assansin.Henry Mancini's brilliant tunes can be heard there, as in all the Pink Panther movies.The movie is packed with hilarious stuff.When you see Sellers falling down the stairs off of the parallel bars, you have no choice but to laugh.Or his numerous attempts to get across the moat.And his disguises are very funny.Like him floating around in his hunchback disguise.Or the dentist, and you laugh with Sellers and Lom after they've had some laughing gas.Well, you don't need any laughing gas.This movie will make you laugh in any case.

A very funny premise and beginning soon gives way to sheer nonsense in this 1976 film, 4 years prior to the passing of Peter Sellers.Herbert Lom was a perfect foil for Sellers. As the Chief Inspector gone mad after the last film, Lom is about to be released from the asylum until his meeting with Clouseau brings agony to him and he reverts back to his lunacy, turning to evil this time.Clouseau is hysterical in the way that he can cheat his demise, but the film begins to labor in slapstick comedy and it wears upon you after a while.Look for non-speaking Omar Sharif to appear. The guys who impersonated Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford were hysterical.