The Freaking Film Fanatic with Nathan Unck
The Naked Gun Rated: PG-13 for violence, crude/sexual humor and language
So, I have always loved the old Classic films by the Zucker and Abrams team with Airplane, Hot Shots and The Naked Gun. They are full of hysterical jokes almost every five seconds. The word play and gags that make those movies are still hilarious today, so with a new Naked Gun movie, whether it's a full reboot or not, was something that interested me. Not only that, but with Liam Neeson in the lead role of Frank Drebin Jr., the son of Frank Drebin played by Leslie Neilson in the original three films, was interesting to me because I've never really seen Liam Neeson in a comedy, at least not from what I remember.
The key that made all of those other movies work was how serious the actors played through the comedy. The jokes aren't jokes to the characters, and that is what makes the movies so funny. Think of the line from Airplane, "Surely you can't be serious." then the joke said in a serious tone, "I am serious, and don't call me Shirly." The movies all needed that seriousness out of the characters to make them work. So did the jokes work or not? The short answer is "Yes", The longer answer is "Not all of them".
There were jokes that were very funny and gags that were done many, many times throughout the film, but there were some duds that weren't funny that the film kept referring back to. I hate to say it, don't think I am a pervert, but I laughed the hardest at a gag with a villain using a pair of thermal binoculars when Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson are cooking a turkey, as some kind of form of foreplay, but they are positioned in a way where the thermal binoculars made it look like a super kinky love scene. I don't want to give away any jokes, and part of that thermal scene is in the trailer. There are some really good jokes in the trailer, but in the film, there are other gags in between those gags. The joke start in the beginning, and they never let up, which is what this kind of film needs to do to work.
The plotline, or "device" is good enough for the story to work all of the jokes. However, the film is very, very short. For press screenings, they never have commercials or movie trailers, so I turned my phone off right at seven, and when I turned it on, it was 8:19, and that's with the end credits being finished. By the way, there are a lot of funny jokes in the end credits as well, so they are worth watching. There is even an end of credit scene that has a certain celebrity that had a cameo in the very first Naked Gun movie.
I did take my wife with me who has never see any of the Naked Gun films, and she looked at me after the movie and said, "That was the dumbest movie I have ever seen!". I then proceeded to tell her, "That's the point!". It isn't meant to be a film that is going to win any big awards, but it doesn't have to. It does it's job. It has rapid fire jokes, a plot that makes some kind of sense, and if you leave having laughed a lot, even with the bad jokes that didn't work, it did what it was meant to do, so with that, it succeeds,
If you really like the original films, then this is a no brainer. Liam Neeson does a great job at being the serious character making all of the jokes with deadpan delivery, and even Pamela Anderson has some great moments. I particularly liked a scene where Pamela Anderson sings at a Jazz club. It's goofy, unsexy, and really funny. Another thing I found interesting, the language was really tame. The "thermal vision" scene is the worst the film gets.
Even though I did like the film quite a bit, with it's very short runtime, and the fact that it isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, I would suggest waiting until this one goes to streaming services. I am sure the run in the theaters will be pretty short, and be available to purchase for less than the price of two movie tickets, or even waiting until it goes onto Paramount + after the $25 price tag of the initial streaming time. Like I said, it had a lot of humor that I find funny, but my wife didn't, and I am pretty sure a lot of people might be in that situation, but if you are a big fan and want to go out to the theaters and see it, then you will have a pretty good time.
The Naked Gun is rated PG-13 for violence, crude/sexual humor and some language.
