Latest news with #FrankDrebin
New Indian Express
10-08-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
‘We Fell Madly in Love on the Set': Pamela Anderson
There's a quiet revolution in Pamela Anderson's second innings. Her recent shift in focus towards a more natural, makeup-free public image and her relationship with The Naked Gun co-star Liam Neeson are drawing a lot of attention. Speculation about the couple's relationship swirled as the pair began promoting their new film, now in theatres, with onlookers noting their chemistry on and off screen. What can you tell us about your new movie? I can't tell you much but it's very, very funny and also different. I'm excited for everyone to see it. Liam Neeson takes over from the late Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin. How was working with him? I loved it. Liam plays Frank Drebin's son, Frank Jr., and he's just so funny. I think everyone knows him as this incredible, legendary dramatic actor, but this shows his comedy skills. I was actually kind of nervous to meet him at first because I am such a fan. I was shaking, I was so nervous. But we hit it off. Liam is the most wonderful, generous person. He is so funny and goofy in this movie. We had so much fun together. We never stopped laughing. We fell madly in love on the set. We had a blast.
Time Magazine
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
Every Reference 'The Naked Gun' Reboot Makes to the Original
Fans of absurdist, relentless comedy, rejoice! Comedy with a capital C has returned to the big screen with The Naked Gun. Directed by Akiva Schaffer and written by Schaffer, Doug Mand, and Dan Gregor, the film is a reboot of the original 1988 Naked Gun: Files From the Police Squad! That film was based on the Police Squad! TV series, which also starred Leslie Nielsen as Lt Frank Drebin. Thankfully, none of that knowledge is necessary to enjoy the new The Naked Gun, which stands entirely on its own and stars Liam Neeson as the new Frank Drebin. What the 2025 The Naked Gun does have, just like its 1988 predecessor, is wall-to-wall jokes. Both films value making you laugh far above plot and a storyline that makes sense. It's overflowing with visual gags, double entendres, and comic set-pieces galore. And plenty of them, perhaps unsurprisingly, refer to the 1988 original. Below, we've broken down the key references and callbacks the 2025 Naked Gun makes to the original film. It's all in the family Lt Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) is the son of…you guessed it, Frank Drebin, played by Leslie Nielsen in the original Naked Gun films. But that's not all. As revealed in a hysterical gag, the entire police force, including Paul Walter Hauser's Capt Ed Hocken Jr, is the son or daughter of someone from the original cast. Yes, even O.J. Simpson In that same scene, each officer is crying over their dead father, talking about how much they miss them and want to make them proud. But when it gets to the child of Nordberg (Moses Jones)—notoriously played by O.J. Simpson—he doesn't say he misses his dad, instead turning to the camera with a knowing shake of the head. Weird Al Yankovic At the beginning of the '88 Naked Gun, Derbin steps off a plane and speaks at a press conference. He naturally assumes it's for him, but it's actually for singer/songwriter Weird Al Yankovic, who was on the same plane. In the new film, Weird Al has been hired to perform in the bunkers of the ultra-rich once the PLOT (Primordial Law of Toughness) device gets activated. Bathroom troubles Both Drebins have a lot in common. One unique thing that bonds them is their unfortunate mishaps involving bathrooms. In the 2025 film, Drebin finds himself in desperate need of a toilet after eating a convenience store hot dog. It gets bad enough that he commandeers the bathroom of a coffee shop, shooting his gun in the air to get the line of people waiting to disperse. Nielsen's Drebin accidentally leaves his microphone on when he goes to the bathroom, leading everyone attending a press conference to be confronted by the sounds of his urinating and ridiculous singing. Good driving is overrated Another thing that links the Drebins is a complete inability to drive safely. Neither of them can park a car to save their lives. In both films, they crash into things, run people over, and cause wanton chaos all around the city. Someone revoke their licenses! Police station problems Man, Drebin really shouldn't be trusted around a vehicle. Neeson's Drebin receives an electric vehicle as a gift from rich villain Richard Caine (Danny Huston), complete with a charging unit at the police station. Drebin doesn't realize the car is still plugged in and drives off, leading to abject chaos as a prison wall crumbles down and criminals flee. That's not the first time Naked Gun has brought chaos straight to the police station. In the original, Drebin leaves his car on drive, causing it to careen unmanned down a slope outside the station, as he shoots at it and incites panic. Femme fatales The femme fatale played an essential role in the noir genre of the 1940s, and they've been a key fixture in cinema ever since. Femme fatales play a key role in both Naked Gun movies, Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley) in the original, and Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson). Both films give them a deeply comic bent and the 2025 film considerably ups the silliness factor, bringing real laughs to a traditionally hard-edged archetype. Running into walls Speaking of femme fatales, Pamela Anderson isn't the first woman to enchant a Drebin to walk headfirst into a wall. Priscilla Presley also does it during her attempted seduction of Drebin Sr. Inner monologues When Drebin meets Jane, his inner monologue takes over, waxing rhapsodically about how beautiful she is. Drebin Jr also has an equally ludicrous inner monologue, which states that Beth has 'a bottom that would make any toilet beg for the brown.' The 2025 movie gives the inner monologues a clever twist: every police officer has an inner monologue, and they all overlap one another in a funny gag. A 'romantic' montage When romance heats up for Drebin and Davenport, we're treated to an eye-wateringly funny montage of their budding love, set to Starship's 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now.' It's an amped up version of the montage to the Drebin/Spencer montage set to 'I'm Into Something Good' by Herman's Hermits—though the original doesn't have a magical snowman that wreaks havoc on the new lovers. Revealing clothes What's better than a quick change? Neeson's Drebin rips off his police uniform to reveal a cozy cardigan in an attempt to woo Davenport. In the original, the quick change is considerably racier, which makes the new reveal even funnier. When things are about to get hot and heavy, Nielsen's Drebin pulls tears off his suit to reveal…his birthday suit. Who needs a windshield? A pitch-perfect visual gag occurs in The Naked Gun when Drebin is in a car chase and his vehicle collides with various street objects, shattering his windshield, and flooding his car with bees. But then Drebin drives into two men carrying a windshield, which perfectly fits into his car, effectively fixing his windshield woes. It's a hilarious scene, and an easy-to-miss callback to the '88 film, where Drebin finds himself in a vehicle driven by a learner, and the car windshield shatters, leaving everyone covered in glass. Police lights The montage that opens the 1988 Naked Gun, a fixed view of a cop car driving through outrageous places, like a high school locker room and a family home, is brought back to life in the end credits of the new film, a lovely final nod to the outrageousness of the OG. Stay for the credits Even the credits of these movies are funny. While The Naked Gun has a hilarious credits scene, we're actually referring to the credit scroll itself. It's got plenty of gag credits throughout, including 'Netflix Password.' It's a riff on the original, which has plenty of joke credits, including crediting various actors by their single lines.
Daily Mirror
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
The Naked Gun movie branded 'buffoonery' as others hail reboot as 'masterclass'
Film critics provide reviews of Naked Gun remake following the success of the original film starring Leslie Nielsen who played the legendary Frank Drebin Ahead of it's release, the remake of Naked Gun had a lot to live up to considering the original, starring Leslie Nielsen, became a cult classic across the world. But it looks as though Liam Neeson's who plays Frank Drebin Jnr, who is on a mission to solve a murder to halt the closure of the police department, has nailed it. The crime comedy film has garnered rave reviews by film critics on Rotten Tomato as it successfully introduces "deadpan buffoonery", while feeding in a gripping plot. One critic wrote: "Director Akiva Schaffer and his co-writers, Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, get to the heart of the humor in a non-ironic, non-revisionist fashion." A writer from the New York Times penned: "As the movie continues, though, [Neeson] adds emotional texture to the character and another, somewhat similar yet also different-enough Frank Drebin emerges." It comes after one Top Gear host admitted he 'never got along' with Jeremy Clarkson as he made a bold statement. Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones split as he joins a notorious dating app on a lads' holiday Taylor Swift sparks engagement rumours as fans spot Travis Kelce's lock screen Meanwhile another critic for The Times added: "See it with an audience, and experience the rare and wonderful pleasure of a crowd scrambling to keep up with one of the stupidest films it's ever seen." And a fourth person said: "So dense with jokes, gags and references to noir tropes and cop shows that it is impossible to clock them all on a single viewing." Meanwhile a fourth person added: "Reviving a cult classic like The Naked Gun is a bit like bringing slapstick to a funeral — gutsy, awkward, and, when done right, oddly cathartic. Director Schaffer attempts just that, blending puns, parodies, and pop culture into a screwball cocktail... " And it seems the sentiments of the critics is also echoed among fans of the film. One person said: "A funny movie that delivered what was advertised!" A second said: "loved this film. Silly and refreshing. Liam and Pam are awesome together." And a third added: "If you a fan of the originals will enjoy this. Classic Naked Gun humor gotta always be paying attention." Aside from the success of the film another talking point among fans is the chemistry between Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson. In an interview with People magazine, Liam, 73, candidly confessed to being "madly in love" with the mum of two. At the time, he told the publication: "With Pamela, first off, I'm madly in love with her." He added: "She's just terrific to work with. I can't compliment her enough, I'll be honest with you. No huge ego. She just comes in to do the work. She's funny and so easy to work with. She's going to be terrific in the film." And in response to his comments, Pamela who was formerly a pin up girl following her lengthy stint on nineties TV show Baywatch, claimed that he was "the perfect gentleman". She added: "He brings out the best in you…with respect, kindness, and depth of experience. It was an absolute honor to work with him." And while the couple have been careful to only discuss their work life, Pamela let slip their relationship spilled over into their personal life as she even cooked for him. In May, she revealed: "I also baked my sourdough bread for therapy and regularly shared with him, along with cookies and muffins."
Telegraph
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Liam Neeson's Naked Gun is one of the stupidest films I've ever seen. I loved it
Since I can tell you in 20 words that the new Naked Gun film with Liam Neeson is so funny it made me physically crumple in my seat on multiple occasions, it's unclear what the rest of this review needs to actually do. But suffice it to say, if you appreciate the particular style of humour in which the spoof police comedy series specialised in the 1980s and 1990s – deadpan imbecility, surreal micro-interludes, innocent domestic activities resembling sex acts when viewed from a distance in silhouette, and so on – then chances are you, too, will find yourself cackling away on a slow yet steady slide towards the carpet. Like Top Gun: Maverick or Star Wars: Episode VII, the new Naked Gun is another legacy sequel which exists purely to revive a winning formula the industry hasn't tried for a bit. It's not an especially daring production – while the script's long list of targets might encompass everything from bestiality to racist policing, it's content to tweak taboos rather than bust them – three things about it stun nonetheless. One is how well-suited Neeson is to the part of poker-faced detective Frank Drebin Jr, the son of the character Leslie Nielsen played in the previous films. Like Nielsen, he delivers his dialogue with a gravelly matter-of-factness that only compounds its lunacy. If the Taken star's past decade of throwaway action roles achieved nothing else, they at least equipped him with exactly the sort of no-nonsense screen persona required to sell some of the most unapologetically all-nonsense material to be seen since the early 1990s. The plot, insofar as it matters (and it doesn't), loosely reworks the 1988 original for a modern audience. In a Los Angeles still pleasingly attuned to its noirish roots, Danny Huston's vaguely Musk-y electric car mogul is perfecting a mind-control gizmo known as the P.L.O.T. Device. An admirably age-appropriate femme fatale – winningly played by a game-for-anything Pamela Anderson – comes to Drebin with the intel that can eventually disarm it. The second, more fundamental shock is the mere fact of the film's existence, almost a decade after Hollywood decided that mainstream comedies – sequels, reboots or otherwise – had become more trouble than they were probably worth. (Too little scope for franchise integration; too much for unforced PR nightmares, as social media scrutinises every pratfall for wrongthink.) Presumably the Naked Gun brand still carried just enough weight to get this one made, though there are relatively few overt heritage callbacks, aside from a handful of sketch premises and the inevitable cameo by a certain taxidermied broad-tailed rodent. The third surprise – perhaps the most surprising of all – is how uncannily director Akiva Schaffer and his co-writers recapture the sheer comedic relentlessness of the original Naked Gun trilogy at their best, while maintaining an impressively high level of gag-by-gag quality control. (It's a pity that David Zucker, one third of the legendary Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team behind the original films, has vowed not to watch this one, as he'd find nothing but the sincerest form of flattery here.) With a fresh joke in almost every line of the script, even if only one in five worked, you'd still be laughing more or less continuously through to the credits – and for me, at least, the hit rate was often considerably higher than that. Some of the best jokes get temporarily lost inside themselves, such as the romantic alpine getaway interlude that plays like an extended standalone Neeson-Anderson skit, and in which the couple's easy on-screen chemistry – even amid some dazzlingly mad turns of events – will do little to quell the current talk of real-life romance. But many more inspired comic concepts are burned through in a flash, and are all the funnier for it. See it with an audience, and experience the rare and wonderful pleasure of a crowd scrambling to keep up with one of the stupidest films it's ever seen.
The Independent
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Everything Liam Neeson has said about Naked Gun co-star Pamela Anderson
Liam Neeson has expressed his strong admiration for Pamela Anderson after they filmed a new Naked Gun movie together. Neeson, 72, stated he is 'madly in love' with Anderson, 57, praising her as 'terrific' and 'funny' to work with. Anderson reciprocated, calling Neeson 'the perfect gentleman' who 'brought out the best' in her. Despite their close bond, both actors dismissed romance rumours, with Neeson stating he is 'done with dating ' and Anderson considering him a 'friend forever'. The Naked Gun reboot, starring Neeson as Frank Drebin's son and Anderson as the female lead, is set for release on 1 August.
