Filmmaking trio David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abraham’s Naked Gun trilogy is among some of the most revered spoof material in movie history. Having revisited the first two films in the franchise before seeing director Akiva Schaffer’s new take on the idea, I think those films certainly earned that reverence. They’re well-paced, both in terms of timing and placement of jokes. They also excel at picking the right times to tell the right joke; no one element is overused. Like its predecessors, sight gags, dialogue-based humor, and mini-sketches also abound in Schaffer’s film, which sees Liam Neeson take up the mantle of the late great Leslie Nielsen. Neeson plays Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr., the son of Nielsen’s character.
As the lead detective of the slow-to-reform Police Squad, Frank is just about as bumbling and clueless as his father was. What the filmmakers (Neeson included) get so right here is that the comedy comes from Frank rarely realizing or caring that he’s caused collateral damage or done something else wrong. This also helps the brisk, breezy feeling all these films have, regardless of how dark the comedy can sometimes get. If I sound like I’m being a little vague, that’s only because I’m trying not to just list all the great jokes. If you’ve seen the trailers, you’ll be happy to know that those great jokes aren’t even 10% of what’s in the movie. Suffice it to say that each plot point and new character I mention from here on out comes with their own set of hilarious one-liners and running gags.
Frank and his partner, Captain Ed Hocken Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser) — the son of George Kennedy’s character in the original films — are tasked with investigating a wealthy tech magnate by the name of Richard Cane (Danny Huston). Their investigation leads them to discover a plot (humorously teased from the very beginning) to remake society to better suit the rich and powerful by turning on a device which will activate humanity’s basest behaviors. It’s a hackneyed idea, to be sure, but is anyone here for the actual story? Of course not. This movie exists to make crowds laugh until they’re blue in the face, and it succeeds enormously.
As Beth, Frank’s love interest, Pamela Anderson nearly steals the entire movie. Some of the most obvious homages to the original films have to do with their love affair, including a romance montage that goes off the rails in a whole new way, respectfully separating itself in form and content from the montages in the Zucker brothers’ films. The whole movie really has that kind of balance to it, in the sense that it consistently finds new ways to fit itself into the very particular goofy vibe and fourth-wall breaking of its predecessors.
If I could say anything negative at all about the film, it would be that it does somewhat run out of steam in its third act. It’s not like it’s too long; it sticks to the 80-90 minute runtime of the rest of the franchise. It’s just that each joke had been a delicious surprise up to that point, and the last 20 minutes or so doesn’t quite meet the same quota as the previous hour. Regardless, this new Naked Gun hits the target far better than anyone might have expected. I’d certainly never doubt anyone from The Lonely Island, but whenever I saw the marketing, I was a bit nervous that I was seeing all the movie had to offer. I’m so glad that that’s exactly what didn’t happen here. | George Napper
