'The Naked Gun' review: Reboot with Liam Neeson captures original's zany spirit
Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson have fun in "The Naked Gun." Credit: Paramount Pictures/Frank Masi
PLOT A Los Angeles cop uncovers a tech billionaire’s plot to drive the world mad.
CAST Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Danny Huston
RATED PG-13 (very crude humor)
LENGTH 1:25
WHERE Area theaters
BOTTOM LINE Neeson and his squad capture the zany spirit of the 1988 original.
Care to take a comedy pop quiz? Guess the line of dialogue that comes before this one: "No, it's a building."
If you said "You can't fight City Hall," then you’ve clearly studied the works of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, the trio behind "The Naked Gun," one of the dumbest yet funniest films of the 1980s. And here’s good news: Akiva Schaffer, the director and co-writer behind the new reboot, might be the top student in class. You'll hear that groaner, and many like it, in "The Naked Gun."
Replacing Leslie Nielsen as the bumbling cop Frank Drebin (first seen in the gonzo ABC series "Police Squad!") is Liam Neeson as his footstep-following son, Frank Jr. He narrates his life in classic film-noir style: “I woke up in my empty cop apartment,” and shed a few “cop tears” over a departed “cop wife,” and so on. While investigating a bank robbery (one of the crew is played by Uniondale’s Busta Rhymes), Drebin encounters Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), a bombshell who inspires unprintable thoughts, and then meets Richard Cane (Danny Huston), a tech billionaire. Cane’s nefarious plan: Drive humanity insane with an electronic pulse from something called a P.L.O.T. Device.
It's an intentionally generic story that allows Schaffer (a member of the comedy troupe The Lonely Island) to lampoon genres, invent lowbrow routines (some jokes come directly from Benny Hill, including the mispronounced crime of "man’s laughter") and generally throw comedic spaghetti to the wall. (One running gag does in fact involve spaghetti.) For the most part, it works. There are bizarre exchanges (Drebin and Cane both love The Black Eyed Peas), a romantic montage that takes a very weird turn and two totally random references to "Mission: Impossible — Fallout" and "Double Indemnity." (Well, why not?)
The cast is clearly having fun. Neeson gets his laughs by playing even straighter than his predecessor did. Paul Walter Hauser makes a fine straight man as the hapless Ed, son of yet another original character. And Anderson shines briefly by leading a jazz band through an excruciating scat routine.
After all, cop shows aren’t the square-jawed dramas they used to be, and film noir is yesteryear’s genre. But Schaffer keeps the jokes coming so fast you won’t have time to complain. Stay for the end credits and read carefully — that’s where the real groaners are.
OTHER CRITICS SAY
Like most reboots ... the best thing about the new 'Naked Gun' is that it might send you back to the original. — The Associated Press
Fall-out-of-your-seat-and-roll-on-the-floor hilarious — New York Magazine/Vulture
The early scenes are so shamelessly, stupidly funny, with a hit-to-miss gag ratio of about 75%, that you can't help be disappointed as that ratio steadily sinks over the course of the movie. — Washington Post
Brilliant gags pop up here and there, yet the last two-thirds of this new Naked Gun feels like its exponentially limping to the finish line. — Rolling Stone
A fresh, fun and uproariously funny laugh riot that honors its source material and reinvents it for a whole new audience and generation. You'll laugh until it hurts, and it'll feel great. — Detroit News
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