‘The Naked Gun' reboot is as funny as it is unnecessary
Director Akiva Schaffer (of The Lonely Island, alongside Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone) and his team of co-writers, Doug Mand and Dan Gregor, bring us a new case from the files of 'Police Squad.' As Frank Drebin, Jr., son of Nielsen's hero, they cast Liam Neeson. You may remember him from the 1988 Justine Bateman star vehicle, 'Satisfaction.'
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From left: Eddie Yu as Detective Park, Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., and Paul Walter Hauser as Ed Hocken Jr.
Photo Credit: Frank Masi/Frank Masi
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With his gruff demeanor, and penchant for having a particular set of skills in numerous action movies and dramas, Neeson seems like an inappropriate choice for an absurdist comedy. But it helps to remember that, before the ZAZ team cast him in 'Airplane,' Nielsen was mostly known for dramatic and bad guy roles.
The fun of watching 'Airplane' back in 1980 was seeing serious actors make complete fools of themselves while keeping a straight face. The allure of that situation made the ZAZ movies even more hilarious. So, casting Liam Neeson continues that fine tradition of hiring people audiences wouldn't expect to be funny.
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At least that's what the filmmakers want you to believe. If you ask me, I say they cast him because Liam Neeson sounds a lot like Leslie Nielsen. Say it with me: 'Nielsen, Neeson, Neeson, Nielsen! Neeson, Nielsen, Nielsen, Neeson!'
Confusing, isn't it?
I digress. Either I continue to do that, or I make my word count by spoiling all the gags and jokes this reboot crams into its 85-minute runtime. And I'll do it, too, if you complain.
Journalistic integrity requires me to be serious, so like Liam Neeson, let me be Frank: Despite being so paint-by-numbers faithful to the first 'Naked Gun' movie's plot beats that you can point them out, this is still pretty damn funny. Schaffer and his team generate enough laughs for you to forgive this film's trespasses.
'Surely, you can't be serious!' you gasp in surprise. I am serious! And you're quoting the wrong movie.
'The Naked Gun' begins with a nod to the Spike Lee-Denzel Washington heist movie, 'Inside Man.' A bank robbery is in progress, and while there are guns and drama in the lobby, the real theft is occurring in the safe deposit box room. An unnamed robber blasts a hole in one of the drawers and steals a contraption that's been conveniently labelled 'P.L.O.T. Device.'
Meanwhile, a Girl Scout enters the bank and proceeds to take out all the other bank robbers. Turns out she's Frank Drebin Jr. in disguise! Drebin is so brutal in his violence that the criminals sue Police Squad. The current Chief of Police Squad (CCH Pounder) yells at Drebin, interrupting a ceremony honoring the capture of his 1,000th criminal.
Left to right: Paul Walter Hauser, Liam Neeson, and CCH Pounder.
Frank Masi
Turns out that the robbery has something to do with tech billionaire Richard Cane (Danny Huston). Cane's company makes driverless cars covered with so many lights that they look like rejects from 'Tron.' He's also a stand-in for a certain person whose website's name begins (and ends) with X.
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When Cane's top employee Sam Davenport is killed in one of Cane's driverless cars, Police Squad closes the case as an accident. But Drebin's mind is changed by a slinky blonde name Beth (Pamela Anderson) who may or may not be this film's femme fatale. She is most definitely Sam's sister, and quite possibly a love interest for Drebin. Beth thinks her brother was murdered by Cane, and she's going to do her own investigation—and her own singing.
Pamela Anderson as Beth Davenport and Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr.
Frank Masi
Convinced of Cane's evildoing, Drebin teams up with his partner, Ed (Paul Walter Hauser) to solve the case, despite the fact that Drebin keeps getting thrown off of it due to his antics. Ed is the son of Drebin Sr's partner, Ed (played by George Kennedy in the original films), and Hauser and Neeson inherit a similar buddy cop chemistry from Neeson and Kennedy.
Through my laughter, I kept noticing how neatly this film parallels its predecessor. The plot involves mind control, for starters. Both films have cold opens that highlight Drebin's heroics. And they both have inappropriately comic romantic montages set to perky songs: In the original, the scene is set to 'I'm Into Something Good' by Herman's Hermits and features a nod to 'Platoon.' This one uses 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now' and has an homage to the dreadful Michael Fassbender cop mystery, 'The Snowman,' that must be seen to be believed.
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Danny Huston as Richard Cane.
Paramount Pictures
To his credit, Neeson remains suitably deadpan. The film makes the occasional mistake of spoofing the actor's persona rather than cop movies, but that's forgivable. Anderson has a goofy charm that reminds us that this isn't her first comedy rodeo (she was on 'Home Improvement,' remember?). And Huston leans into the evil that techbros do, never breaking despite the ridiculous things Cane is forced to endure.
As the old WWII ads used to say, 'Was this trip really necessary?' It isn't. However, Neeson and his partners in crime makes the journey pleasant enough. The filmmakers even pay tribute to ZAZ by inserting crazy credits into the end credits scroll. (Be sure to read them!) Plus, there's a post-credits sequence that features a well-known celebrity.
Nothing will replace the original in your hearts and minds. But you'll still have a good time here. To paraphrase good old Frank Drebin Sr., 'The Naked Gun' has real laughs — without utensils.
★★★
THE NAKED GUN
Directed by Akiva Schaffer. Written by Schaffer, Doug Mand, Dan Gregor. Starring Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, CCH Pounder. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, suburbs. 85 min. PG-13 (guns aren't the only naked things on display)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
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Fox News
10 hours ago
- Fox News
Original 'Naked Gun' director offers his reasons for skipping Liam Neeson reboot
The director of the first two "Naked Gun" movies said he will not be seeing the 2025 reboot of his classic spoof series. In an interview with Fox News Digital, filmmaker David Zucker declared that he would not be watching "The Naked Gun" starring Liam Neeson, stating the entire concept of a "Naked Gun" reboot was unoriginal and played out. "I don't see any reason to see it," he said. "And so, it's like, well, Jim Abrahams said, if your daughter became a prostitute, would you go watch her work?" Zucker said elsewhere, quoting the late co-director of "Airplane!", another classic comedy Zucker co-directed. The director clarified that, despite his harsh view of 2025's "Naked Gun" reboot, he bears no ill will towards the film's cast and crew, like Neeson, or producer Seth MacFarlane – the creator of "Family Guy." "So, Seth MacFarlane came in. He's a big, successful producer, and he came in with a big star, Liam Neeson. I don't have anything against Liam Neeson. I think he's a wonderful actor. He is a fine actor, but generally for spoof, you don't really need that," he said. "Plus, the way I approach movies is not to do the same thing over again. I didn't even want to do 'Naked Gun 3.' And so, somebody else directed it. I produced it while I was writing another movie." Zucker stressed that he would have done "something new" with another "Naked Gun" rather than repackage his original idea. The director said that prior to Paramount Global greenlighting the Neeson "Naked Gun" he workshopped potential ideas for a "Naked Gun 4." They included a storyline involving the son of police detective Frank Drebin (played by actor Leslie Nielsen in the original) as a spy. "[What] Pat and Mike and I worked on for a year was to have Drebin's son, but really his young son, a 30-year-old, and not an LA cop scenario – but a 'Mission Impossible,' James Bond, 'Bourne Identity' international spoof, international spy thriller. So, I always have wanted to do something new," he said. Zucker also told Fox News Digital that he doesn't want to give people the impression he's calling for a boycott of the reboot, calling out media reports that have made it seem that way. "I read things where it says, 'David Zucker is leading a boycott.' I'm not leading a [boycott] – all I said was that I have no interest in seeing it." He made sure to note that the new film's director, Akiva Schaffer, is "a super nice guy" who, along with MacFarlane, asked Zucker in vain for advice on the film. "But there's nothing I can do to help them because it's not what I would have done," he declared. Elsewhere, he said, "I think the whole thing is wrong, because that's not how I would do movies. I don't want to copy someone else's work." Zucker told Fox News Digital that he believes that the entire film industry is suffering from this lack of originality. "Now it's all about – you know, the studio executives, for the most part, are frightened. And so that's why all you have now is, you know, big stars, superhero movies, big special effects, Tom Cruise movies," he said, though he clarified he loves Tom Cruise movies. He added that industry executives are "absolutely playing it safe and also they, you know, they tend to whore after big producers and big stars." "But mostly, nobody has any new ideas. They want to copy the old ideas, like 'Naked Gun 4' is really just a copy of an old idea. I mean, it's a 40-year-old idea to do an older actor as a police detective." Although he didn't helm the latest version of "The Naked Gun," Zucker has been hard at work on multiple projects, including a totally new original spoof film, "Star of Malta." The filmmaker described his upcoming film as "completely new." He said that it's "set in 1949. It's going to look like one of those film noir movies that were done from 1945 to 1955. And it's a really great story. And it is a believable story with a young actor cast. And you really believe that they're real people." Providing a hint of what audiences could expect from the film's comedy, he added, "It's really what I would say – it's spoof 2.0. And it's really the next thing." Zucker noted that it's going to be an indie release, because that's just how opposed big studios are to original projects these days. "If you want to do something original, you have to go with the indie route. And 'Star of Malta' is only a $10 million budget. So, we'll be able to do that." Zucker also mentioned his other new project, "Master Crash: A Crash Course In Spoof Comedy." The project is 15-episode instructional web series that teaches viewers the filmmaker's 15 rules of writing parody. The first episode of Master Crash debuted last month. The filmmaker told Fox News Digital he wanted to make the course because he wants budding comedy filmmakers and writers to know the "discipline" that has to go into writing classic spoof or parody films for them to work. "You know, it was all scenes, crazy and zany and weird, but there was a discipline to it," he explained. "And that discipline is – not only in the general story that we're telling – it has to be a believable story. And when I didn't tell a believable story with a believable character, with an arc, the movies weren't as successful." "And then also you need the knowledge that we've gained about how to write the jokes and then how to direct the jokes," he said, adding, "There's a lot of method to it."
Tom's Guide
11 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
Love 'The Naked Gun'? 5 best spoof movies to stream right now
Hollywood loves making fun of itself, and movie spoofs are a great way for filmmakers to mock the conventions of a particular genre while also paying tribute to classic films in that genre. Although the 1980s are often regarded as the heyday of the spoof movie, there's currently a resurgence, with sequels/reboots on the way for multiple entries on this list. Like a lot of people, I started watching silly spoofs as a kid because they were funny, even though I often had no idea what they were parodying. The best spoof movies stand on their own, but get funnier with the more references that viewers understand. With the Liam Neeson-starring reboot of 'The Naked Gun' now playing in theaters, here are five of the best spoof movies to stream right now. Spoof kingpins David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker turned their short-lived 'Police Squad!' TV cop-show parody into perhaps the most famous spoof movie of all time, starring Leslie Nielsen as the bumbling Lt. Frank Drebin. Drebin foils a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Los Angeles, although he often succeeds in spite of his own ineptitude. There's a reason that 'The Naked Gun' launched two sequels and the current reboot, and it remains one of the most expertly constructed joke-delivery machines around. Nielsen expands on his work in the ZAZ spoof movie 'Airplane!,' bringing deadpan seriousness to his role as Drebin. The ridiculous puns and bits of slapstick work because Nielsen and his co-stars deliver them with straight faces, sometimes leaving the audience to catch up with the densely packed humor that rewards multiple viewings. Watch on Paramount Plus Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Filmmaker Rob Reiner elevated the mockumentary with this parody of self-serious rock documentaries, which has only grown more relevant over time. The current proliferation of artist-endorsed bio-docs is at times indistinguishable from Reiner's spoof, starring Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer as the buffoonish heavy metal band. It helps that the songs (written and performed by the cast members) sound entirely authentic, and some of the humor is so dry that it fooled initial audiences into thinking Spinal Tap was a real band. The hilariously pompous behavior of the musicians and their hangers-on is only a slight variation on the antics of real-life rock stars. It's amazing to think of how many iconic lines ('These go to 11') were improvised by the actors, making 'This Is Spinal Tap' an enduring classic with a highly anticipated sequel 40-plus years later. Rent/buy at Apple or Amazon There's real affection for the grubby sex comedies of the 1980s in this spoof created by members of comedy troupe The State. Filmmakers David Wain and Michael Showalter dig so deeply into the minutiae of the movies that they're parodying that 'Wet Hot American Summer' baffled many early viewers, but it's since become an enduring cult classic, with two spinoff Netflix TV series. Set on the last day of the season at a rural summer camp, the movie perfectly captures the mix of raunchiness and sentimentality that defined vintage summer-camp films, with a cast of comedy ringers (Molly Shannon, Michael Ian Black, Janeane Garofalo) and future superstars (Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Amy Poehler). 'Wet Hot American Summer' is deeply weird, with admirable (or foolhardy) commitment to its most bizarre jokes, and that makes it more distinctive and more memorable than most of its inspirations. Rent/buy at Apple or Amazon Mel Brooks is such a master of the spoof that many of his movies could make this list, including classics like 'Blazing Saddles' and 'Young Frankenstein' (which is frustratingly unavailable to stream). This 'Star Wars' parody is probably his most famous, in part because it's mocking what has become the biggest franchise in film history. Brooks' sense of the ridiculousness of 'Star Wars' is spot-on, and his skewering of 'Star Wars' marketing has aged especially well. Bill Pullman and Daphne Zuniga are entertaining as the movie's Han Solo and Princess Leia analogues, but the supporting players steal the show, including Rick Moranis as petulant villain Dark Helmet and John Candy as lovable dog-man Barf. Although it received mixed reviews, 'Spaceballs' now takes its proper place among Brooks' best films, and it's set for a belated sequel next year, with most of the cast returning. Watch on HBO Max It might be too easy to make fun of the low-budget scrappiness of Blaxploitation movies, which were often produced by fledgling filmmakers with limited resources. But the creators of this Blaxploitation parody never seem like they're condescending to their source material, even when they lovingly mock the technical ineptitude of some early Blaxploitation films. There's a level of verisimilitude to 'Black Dynamite' that could only come from true fans of the genre. Michael Jai White plays the title character, a badass hustler/pimp/former CIA agent who's out to avenge the death of his brother and take down The Man in 1970s Los Angeles. White and director Scott Sanders mix clumsy martial arts, convoluted conspiracies and sexual escapades with goofy jokes and perfectly calibrated 'errors' in continuity and blocking. Like Blaxploitation filmmakers themselves, White and Sanders turn their limitations into assets. Watch on Tubi
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Elaine Hendrix remembers Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson's love for one another amid Pamela Anderson rumors
Elaine Hendrix is reflecting on Liam Neeson's loving marriage to the late Natasha Richardson amid rumors he's dating his Naked Gun co-star Pamela Anderson. The 54-year-old actor recalled working with Richardson on their hit 1998 film, The Parent Trap — which starred Lindsay Lohan — during an interview Thursday with the New York Post. According to Hendrix, Richardson's refrigerator in her trailer on set was covered with pictures of Neeson, whom the Maid in Manhattan star married in 1994. Anytime someone mentioned Richardson's family, 'she would swoon with love,' according to Hendrix. 'They were madly in love, and she was crazy about her kids,' the actor added about the former couple. Richardson and Neeson were married for 15 years and welcomed two children: Micheál, 30, and Daniel, 28. In 2009, Richardson died from an epidural hematoma after a skiing accident. Hendrix told the Post that Richardson's devotion to family made her death 'all the more tragic.' She added that Richardson's love for her children made her role in The Parent Trap — where she played twins Hallie and Annie's mother, designer Elizabeth James — more special. 'I'm so glad that her being was captured in this movie,' Hendrix, who played the evil girlfriend of Annie and Hallie's father, Nick Parker (portrayed by Dennis Quaid), explained. 'It's such a fitting memory of her, such a fitting tribute to her.' Hendrix emphasized how 'warm and sweet' Richardson was. 'It's no wonder she was cast as Elizabeth. I mean, really smart move, Nancy [Meyers] and Charles [Shyer],' she said, referring to the writer of the film, Meyers, and the producer, Shyer. Hendrix's comments about Richardson and Neeson come as the Taken star is rumored to be dating Pamela Anderson. A source told People Tuesday that the actors, who are starring in the new filmThe Naked Gun, have 'a budding romance in the early stages.' The source also claimed that 'it's clear they're smitten with each other.' Before the dating speculation started, the pair posed together at the London premiere of The Naked Gun on July 22. While on the red carpet, Anderson sweetly kissed Neeson's cheek as the Schindler's List actor wrapped his arm around her back. Days later, they attended the New York premiere of their film together with Neeson's sons, and Anderson's sons, Brandon, 29, and Dylan, 27, whom she shares with ex-husband Tommy Lee. While neither actor has publicly confirmed the romance, Anderson previously gushed about the friendship she has with Neeson. 'I think I have a friend forever in Liam,' she said during an interview for her Entertainment Weekly cover story, published earlier in July, 'We definitely have a connection that is very sincere, very loving. He's a good guy.' However, months before the red carpet kiss, Neeson declared his love for Anderson. 'With Pamela, first off, I'm madly in love with her,' the Oscar-winning actor told People in October 2024. 'She's just terrific to work with. I can't compliment her enough, I'll be honest with you. She's funny and so easy to work with.' Anderson has been married six times; twice to the same man. She was married to Tommy Lee from 1995 to 1998 and Kid Rock from 2006 to 2007. She was married to Rick Salomon from 2007 to 2008, before remarrying him in 2014. However, they split again the next year. From 2020 to 2022, The Last Showgirl star was married to Dan Hayhurst. Solve the daily Crossword
