The Pink Panther (2006 film)

The Pink Panther is a 2006 American comedy film and a reboot[citation needed] of The Pink Panther film series. In this film, Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin) is assigned to solve the murder of a famous soccer coach and the theft of the famous Pink Panther diamond. The film also stars Kevin Kline, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer, and Beyoncé Knowles. It was panned by critics and holds a 23% score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, it was a box office success and became the highest-grossing film of the Pink Panther series.

Plot
The film opens as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) narrates a flashback of a soccer match semi-final between France and China. French coach Yves Gluant (Jason Statham) comes down the stadium, wearing the Pink Panther diamond ring, and kisses his girlfriend, pop star Xania (Beyoncé Knowles), after whispering to her. After France wins the game, Yves dies with a poison dart in his neck and the Pink Panther missing from his hand. Eager to win the Medal of Honor (the Légion d'honneur), Dreyfus promotes a clumsy policeman, Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin), to the rank of Inspector and assigns him to the Pink Panther case. Meanwhile, Dreyfus assembles a secret team of top investigators to crack the case, allowing Clouseau to serve as the public face of the investigation so that media attention is focused on Clouseau rather than Dreyfus's team. Dreyfus assigns Gilbert Ponton (Jean Reno) as Clouseau's assistant and instructs Ponton to keep him informed of Clouseau's actions.
Bizu (William Abadie), the prime suspect, being a star footballer who hated Gluant, is shot in the head and killed. While at a casino to interrogate its owner, Raymond Larocque (Roger Rees), Gluant's business partner, Clouseau encounters British Secret Agent 006, Nigel Boswell (Clive Owen, parodying James Bond). Boswell foils a robbery at the casino by the notorious "Gas-Masked Bandits". Clouseau mistakenly receives credit for the deed in the press and is nominated for the Medal of Honour, much to Dreyfus' dismay.
Clouseau follows Xania to New York City, suspecting that she knows more than she is telling. Meanwhile, based on the fact that the poison that killed Gluant was derived from Chinese herbs, Dreyfus concludes that the killer is a Chinese envoy named Dr. Pang. Now ready to take charge of the case and win the Medal of Honour, Dreyfus has Clouseau's bag switched with one full of weapons at the airport for his return flight to France. The bag sets off the metal detector at the security gate and Clouseau is arrested thanks to his inability to pronounce the word "hamburger" correctly (he had smuggled some for the trip back and was asked by the guard what was in his pockets), the guard believing he said "Damburgert". Upon his return to France, the press vilifies him and Dreyfus strips him of his rank for "trying to become a hero". The Chief Inspector plots to publicly arrest Dr. Pang at the Presidential Ball.
At home, Clouseau is reading an online article about his arrest when he notices something significant in the photo. He deduces that the murderer will next try to kill Xania and contacts Ponton. The two detectives rush to the Élysée Palace and sneak into the Presidential Ball with the help of Clouseau's former secretary, Nicole Durant (Emily Mortimer). While Dreyfus arrests Dr. Pang for double murder, Clouseau and Ponton save Xania's life by capturing her would-be assassin, Yuri (Henry Czerny), the French soccer team's trainer, who believes he was the one who helped the team succeed, though Gluant took all the credit. Clouseau first explains that (based on information from a Chinese woman he interrogated) every national soccer team's trainer is required by statute to have a knowledge of Chinese herbs, then notes that Bizu blackmailed Yuri from overhearing his rants against Gluant prior, resulting in Bizu being shot in the occipital lobe of the brain as Russian military are specifically trained to do; this leads Clouseau to believe Yuri to be the killer (he was the one who jabbed the poison dart into Glaunt's neck and shot Bizu in the head). Clouseau reveals that Yuri tried to kill Xania out of revenge for her dismissal of him as nothing, while dating Gluant. Clouseau also reveals that the Pink Panther diamond was never stolen, but is sewn into the lining of Xania's purse, Xania having received it from Gluant as an engagement ring. She had kept it secret to avoid becoming a suspect in her late fiance's murder, which could have destroyed her singing career. Clouseau explains that he saw the diamond in the online photograph of his arrest, which showed Xania's purse on the airport's luggage scanner.
For successfully solving the case, Clouseau wins the Medal of Honour, but leaves Dreyfus seriously injured and eventually plunging into the River Seine shouting Clouseau's name in anger.