The Naked Gun first reviews: Critics hail Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson-starrer, call it the funniest film of the year
What are the critics saying
Indiewire's David Ehrlich called it the 'funniest American movie in years.' His review read, 'A comedy that references everything from Elon Musk to racially motivated police violence without letting its virtues get in the way of its laughs, and even trots out the r-word in a scene that has the power to make activists and edgelords alike both cackle at the same joke (although the Elon stand-in is clearly meant to be the butt of it). While that choice might sound like the symptom of a feckless movie that's afraid of alienating some portion of its audience, in context, it epitomizes how brilliantly this 'Naked Gun' navigates the difference between timeless stupidity and retrograde madness.'
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter reviewed, 'Neeson and Anderson have enough spark to carry the film, not to mention great chemistry. I could have done without the padding of a winter cabin romantic interlude with a killer snowman — there's a difference between dumb and annoyingly stupid — but their scenes together are the high points throughout.'
The big-screen comedy we have been waiting for?
'There's barely a shot or line of dialogue that isn't a joke, and the film has a stunning (and eye-watering) success rate. In keeping with the original films, it almost never winks, affording a confusingly-accented, psychotically violent Neeson and a femme fatale Pamela Anderson — the B-side to her dramatic comeback in last year's The Last Showgirl — the chance to look absolute foolish with a straight face, and without apology,' read the review from Sidhant Adlakha for Inverse.
Meanwhile, The Daily Beast review by Nick Schager read, 'Schaffer wastes no time diving headfirst into lunacy, and that's where he keeps things for the rest of his film's fleet 85 minutes, all of which are spent alternating between random bits related to the material's nominal narrative, and total non sequiturs designed to elicit out-of-left-field chuckles.'
The film revolves around the action taken by the son of Lt. Frank Drebin who must succeed in his father's footsteps to prevent the closure of Police Squad. The film also stars Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand, and Danny Huston. It is all set to release on August 1.
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