Detective Lieutenant Frank Drebin, Jr, is on the case to stop a villain’s plan in the worthy legacy sequel, Naked Gun, directed by Akiva Schaffer.
If you read nothing else, know this: I laughed long, hard, and often during the run time of Naked Gun. For that, it succeeds wonderfully. If you like the ZAZ-spoof subgenre of comedy, you’ll be mighty pleased.
Now for more…
The Naked Gun (1988) is, hands and pants down, one of the top comedies of all time. The comic trio of David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams were comic gods of the 70s and 80s. From The Kentucky Fried Movie, Airplane (still the funniest movie of all time), The Police Squad TV show, Top Secret, and into The Naked Gun, they landed laugh after laugh. Wait, TV show? Police Squad from 1982 was a six-episode program that formed the basis of the The Naked Gun film series. Criminally underseen on the whole, the 5th episode might be the best comic TV episode out there (locksmith…). Two lesser sequels, in 1991 and 1994, followed the 1988 film. In the thirty-one years since, the series has remained dormant, though a sequel/reboot has been in the works at various points. Finally, The Naked Gun returns to the big screen with a legacy sequel, following Liam Neeson as the son of Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin. It’s been a long wait, but the Akiva Schaffer film is a great entry, lesser than the show and first film, but better than any sequel, with a non-stop parade of landing jokes.
As Leslie Nielsen died many years ago, he can’t come back (but he can hold his breath a looooooong time). In his stead is Liam Neeson as his son, Frank Drebin, Jr. I heard scoffing at Neeson’s casting. But people forget that pre-Airplane, Leslie Nielsen was known as a dramatic actor. His serious gravitas and personal reputation lent another level to the comedy, playing Airplane and Naked Gun straight (later sequels and Nielsen-led comedies had him goof it up to reduced effectiveness). Neeson is most known for his “special set of skills” movies, and in Naked Gun, his special set of skills shows his dry comic chops. He’s done so before; his two scenes in Ted 2 were the only redeeming parts; his few scenes in Derry Girls – mostly as a straight man lent a special quality, along with his voice acting in The Lego Movie. Neeson is fully committed, continuing Neilson’s silly stuff done straight to perfection.
He’s joined by a solid group of supporting players. Pamela Anderson’s comeback in The Last Showgirl is continued as Beth, the sister of the victim in Drebin’s case. She and Neeson have amazing chemistry, playing off one another in a great tandem. You can feel them working as a team, with neither trying to get more of a laugh. Paul Walter Hauser, also seen in last week’s Fantastic Four, plays Ed Hocken, Jr. (son of George Kennedy’s Naked Gun character). He’s been a comic relief star for years, and he slides right into his sort of humor easily. He vanishes for a while, and I missed him when he was gone. Danny Huston is deliciously sneering as the villain, as he does so well. His plan is straight from Kingsman: The Secret Service. I’m surprised that wasn’t referenced. Kevin Durand continues to be an unsung actor. Gotta love CCH Pounder as the grizzled chief.
Schaffer has proven to be a great comic director. He came to fame as a member of Lonely Island, creating real comic bangers with Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg. As a director, Hot Rod was funny, but Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping solidified he was perfect when announced as the director of Naked Gun. Popstar hit the perfect satire with a never-ending series of landing jokes. My wife and I had to pause the film several times just to give time for the laughter to die down. The Naked Gun is the same; I need to see it again just to catch the jokes I missed, as my audience and I laughed loudly, missing follow-up jokes.
Schaffer, along with his co-writers Dan Gregor & Doug Mand, is confident in letting the movie work on its own, with a strength in the wordplay, physical gags, non-sequiters, one-liners, background gags, set-ups and their punch lines. There is a restraint from going for the easy jokes. No half-assed callbacks to the originals (ahem, 33 ⅓), no “hey remember this”, very few cameos (exactly 3. One you’d expect; one “oh nice” and one used in such a weird, wonderful way). In a refreshing change of pace, few modern references: in a great gag, nearly every pop reference is twenty years old. The longer sequences don’t overstay their welcome. The jokes are a Gatling gun of gags and guffaws. Running gags aren’t run to the ground. One is very heavy at the start, stops, and comes back for a solid final laugh of the joke.
There’s a sharpness to the jokes, a great go at making this entry stand on its own, while still being reverent to the past. I was continually laughing hardest at the wordplay and its delivery. Thinking back to Airplane and Naked Gun, what stays most is the verbal jokes. Of course, they are easier to quote in daily use (don’t call me Shirley), but are also notable when they occur, as harder to see coming and the writers have to work harder to get them set up and paid off without obviously putting the ball on the tee.
On the less solid side, the film is smaller than the other entries, and it feels it. Perhaps purposely to keep it tight, maybe budgetary. But it’s very self-contained. Don’t expect a giant marching band or too involved sequences. One part happens in an arena, but limited. I wonder how just the slightest expansion would have worked.
Akiva Shaffer’s The Naked Gun moves quickly and never oversays. At 74 minutes before the very long credits (stay for more jokes), Shaffer and editor Brian Scott Olds keep it punchy; it comes in, brings the funny, and gets out. It is fully in the spirit of the classic. It remembers the face of its father, and the Naked Gun’s aim is true. I’m fearful audiences will ignore it (they have some great choices out there right now). But I hope this takes off, I’ll gladly reload The Naked Gun.