The Naked Gun (2025) Movie Review – One funny son of a gun
Back in the late 80's, The Naked Gun series set the gold standard for absurdist brilliance. Boasting a near-constant stream of gags, deadpan one-liners, and physical comedy, Leslie Nielsen took the reigns of this franchise and absolutely run with it.
He embraced the role of bumbling Lieutenant Frank Drebin, transformed from serious dramatic actor into a comedy icon, playing it straight while everything around him spiralled into slapstick chaos. It was glorious, crazy and remains, to this day, a masterclass in parody.
Fast forward to 2025 and there really haven't been a whole lot of good comedies released lately. Unless you count unironic jokes like The Minecraft Movie (which was only funny for the audience memes and how bad the film was) or hilariously misguided efforts like Prime Video's War of the Worlds, there just hasn't been a whole lot to laugh about.
In an age of endless sequels, reboots and prequels, it's ironic then that from the ashes of this dull sludge of grey, a sequel to The Naked Gun series steps up to try its luck.
While this 2025 Naked Gun homage does manage to capture what made the originals so good, it never comes close to hitting the same upper-echelons of greatness that made Nielsen's trilogy so memorable.
Unlike other sequels though, The Naked Gun doesn't sneer or belittle what's come before, instead deciding to embrace the craziness and deliver a lovely homage to the originals. Just like in those films, Director Akiva Schaffer has done his best to try and make every frame of the movie count.
There are countless gags all over this movie in the background, from a beaver on the mantlepiece to more obvious segments like a couple of girls being escorted out the police station for running a Lemonade stand racket.
Stepping into the well-worn shoes of Lesley Nielsen here is Liam Neeson. For anyone who has seen his brief segment from Ted or his deadpan Life's Too Short skit, Neeson does have a 'particular set of skills' for transitioning from serious roles to comedy.
Here, Neeson plays the son of Frank Drebin, Frank Drebin Jr., who becomes entangled in a world-ending plot with a megalomaniac inventor, dead-set on disrupting the status quo.
All the usual cliches are here, and the film leans into those like an old friend. The advanced tech, the McGuffins (handily called PLOT devices) and the investigative beats leading to a big world-ending showdown, are all mixed in to this simple story. The story really doesn't have a whole lot of meat to it though, instead designed as a platform for the comedy to shine through.
The comedy itself is a mixed bag and for every couple of hits, there's an equal miss or two waiting to show up. The Naked Gun understands that not every joke will be laughed at, but there are so many thrown in across the 90 minute run-time that you won't notice too much.
There are clever wordplay jokes (one of which including a play on manslaughter that had me laughing out loud) and deadpan one-liners. There are also bathroom jokes and satire, along with big movie spoofs too.
However, The Naked Gun also unashamedly borrows entire gags from other movies too, which is a bit disappointing. There's a segment involving thermal binoculars that feels ripped right from Austin Powers: Goldmember.
The shocking twist in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle involving the inhaler is thrown into this too, along with kung-fu moves from The Matrix (remember when every 90's spoof movie did this?), the Mission: Impossible masks and James Bond spy names. Of course, it's hard to be wholly original in this field, but given how pioneering the Naked Gun series has always been, it's a bit of a shame to see such familiar jokes pop up so frequently.
A lot of the issues with this movie though largely come toward the end of the movie. It's a weird comparison to make but this film has the same problems that The Secret Life of Pets had. All the best jokes and gags are thrown into the first half of the movie, leaving the second half to scramble and try to hit the same heights. Like Pets, it never manages.
While the character arcs are relatively good and the movie at least makes the most of its talented cast, all of them are very much 'in on the joke'.
What made the originals so endearing was how the characters kept playing it straight when everything around them continued down an increasingly absurdist path. Here though, all the actors feel like they're leaning into the campy hilarity, especially Neeson toward the end of the film.
To be fair, comedy is incredibly difficult to get right and you can tell the creators of The Naked Gun have done their best to at least try and honour the originals while going their own way. It doesn't quite hit the mark but it does have some genuine laugh out loud segments, which is more than can be said for some of the other comedies released recently.
Your mileage with The Naked Gun will certainly vary but by all accounts, this isn't a bad effort. Go in with low expectations and you're bound to find something to chuckle at here.
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