Columbo: Columbo Likes the Nightlife (2003) Directed by Jeffrey Reiner

(Review originally written at 2 November 2009)

It's fair to assume that this will be the last Columbo movie ever made, also considering Peter Falk's current age and rapidly declining mental health of the past few years. Falk first played the role of the cigar smoking scruffy looking police lieutenant in 1968 in the movie "Prescription: Murder". That means that he has played the well known iconic character 69 times, for 5 decades. What an accomplishment for Falk but also the series itself.

It's a common fact that the earlier Columbo movies are also the better ones. The ones that got made from the '80's on variate a lot in quality and unfortunately most of them can't be considered among the better ones out of the long running series, with still some wonderful exceptions left out.

This is without doubt the most 'modern' Columbo movie. It was obvious that Peter Falk and companions tried to bring the Columbo-series up to date, since it was never the creators intentions for this movie to be the last one. No studio however dared to make another Columbo movie, making this most likely the last one.

Even though it's more modernized than any other previous Columbo movie, it is still one that uses the usual familiar formula. Lt. Columbo does all of his usual antics and uses his good old tricks to solve the murder(s). He puts his suspects under pressure by increasingly bother them.

The story just isn't the strongest out of the series though. It's being pretty formulaic and the movie adds few new surprises. It's just nothing that hasn't been shown before in the series, despite its more modern touch added to it. It makes this a fairly average entry in the series. Guess things could had been worse but it's also neither the movie you wanted Peter Falk and the Columbo character to finish with.

7/10

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