The Pink Panther movie review

Over the years I have learned that it is perfectly safe to watch a Steve Martin movie for good laughs. Yep, I am talking about falling off the couch laughs and this film provides them in plenty. Actually, Steve Martin is as his very best as Inspector Jacques Clouseau who has been asked to investigate the death of French soccer team coach and disappearance of the Pink Panther diamond.

In his quest for the killers with the help of Gilbert Ponton (Jean Reno and you might recall him from The Da Vinci Code), he must make a fool of himself at every point (after all he has been set up to fail by police chief Dreyfus played by Kevin Kline), including making a complete mess on his first trip to New York City, where he gets arrested at the JFK Airport. In the process of his investigations, he must also try to get information out of Beyonce (who plays Xania, a pop singer who was dating the coach).

Strongly recommended for Steve Martin fans and comedy lovers.

Chocolat movie review

Here are some simple rules for life:

1. Never join a religion that denies you chocolate, or for that matter, simple pleasures like food, unless you eat so much that you end with a health emergency.
2. Never support the integration of church and state. It is always a dangerous mix regardless of how politicians and church leaders may want to help each other out to screw the people.
3. Always enjoy what you have. On your death bed, you will not regret what you did, but would surely regret all those places that you did not visit or the time that you did not spend with your family or the things that you did not try.
   

Chocolat is a great movie for anyone who likes chocolate or enjoyed "Like Water For Chocolate." Vianne (Juliette Binoche) and daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) show up in a tiny French village, where the main square appears to be literally just as big as my backyard (it is important to understand this because it shows how small the minds of the residents were). Vianne does not go to church, does not have a male companion, wears red shoes (rather than black as all other women did), and opens a chocolaterie at a time with Catholics are supposed to resist temptations.

Thus begins the mother of all battles with the mayor Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina) who is literally in bed with the Catholic church and even edits the priest's sermons till they say what he wants to say.

Contrary to his expectations and disappointment, the chocolaterie not only thrives but also becomes a place for all the outcasts (Judy Dench as Armande who wants to enjoy her final years rather than go on a diet to fight her diabetes or Johnny Depp as Roux who as an Irish gypsy is not welcome and battered wife Lena Olin). In the end the whole town is literally licking chocolate off their fingers.

A beautiful family movie with something for people of all ages.

The Devil Wears Prada movie review

Most magazine editors become very powerful but Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, is above them all. The top designers in the world have to be on good terms with her because Vogue is literally the Bible for the fashionistas and nothing gets inside the magazine until Wintour says so.

She is reportedly the inspiration for the book and the movie. And those of us have had the misfortune of dealing with mean bosses know what it feels like and how frustrating it can be to work with nasty supervisor.

Miranda Priestley (a role that was literally made for Meryl Streep) hires yet another assistant Andy Sachs (I would have never thought that Anne Hathaway was such a fine actress) not just to answer phone calls or to act as an executive assistant, but also to bring coffee for her boss and be treated worse than a maid.

It is the story of a right-out-of-college graduate with all the aspirations of making it big and always doing the right thing, but then finds out that the world of business is one ugly place where there is no place for sweet, polite, considerate people.

She learns a lot of lessons about work and life from her boss but like anyone with even a bit of personal values would do, she quits (as dozens of assistants have done in the past). In the end she realizes that a great job is not worth it if it means stepping on people's toes and sacrificing your personal values.

Strongly recommended if you like fashion, comedy, New York, and Paris.