Zucker and Abrahams’ 1988 comedy The Naked Gun—based on the short-lived 1982 television series Police Squad!—is a timeless classic that spawned two sequels and set the gold standard for absurdist humor. Like most franchises, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood decided to revisit it. While the idea of remaking The Naked Gun without the late, great Leslie Nielsen or the original creative team seemed misguided, I was admittedly curious to see how Liam Neeson would fare in the lead role. With Seth MacFarlane attached as producer, there was at least some reason for optimism. As someone who grew up loving spoof comedies, I was eager to see if that brand of humor could still land today. Unfortunately, director Akiva Schaffer’s The Naked Gun falls flat. Worse yet, it’s not just unfunny—it’s painfully so. And that’s a real shame, because I want nothing more than to see studios take more chances on comedies again. They just have to make us laugh.
The film follows Frank Drebin Jr. (Neeson), the son of the original trilogy’s bumbling hero. Like his father before him, he serves as a lieutenant with the LAPD’s Police Squad. After a disastrously overzealous response to a bank robbery leaves him in hot water, Frank is reassigned to investigate a fatal car crash. The victim, software engineer Simon Davenport, has a sister, Beth (Pamela Anderson), who suspects that Simon’s employer, tech mogul Richard Cane (Danny Huston), is to blame. As Frank digs deeper, he discovers that the robbery—meant to steal a mysterious “P.L.O.T. device” from a safe deposit box—and Simon’s death are connected. The stolen invention, created by Simon, could have catastrophic consequences if it falls into the wrong hands.
Unfortunately, this new Naked Gun feels more like an uninspired imitation of the original than a modern reinvention. The plot borrows heavily from the 1988 film, once again centering on a villain intent on mind control for their own evil plans, and the jokes feel recycled from better spoof comedies. A night vision gag lifted straight from Austin Powers exemplifies the film’s biggest problem—it never goes far enough. What’s left is a limp, laughless copy that mistakes nostalgia for wit. I wanted to root for this film, but sadly, it just doesn’t work.
Bonus Features:
- A Legacy of Laughter
- Son of a (Naked) Gun
- On Set of a Set Within a Set that’s in a Set
- The Funny Femme Fatale
- The Really Unusual Suspects
- Dropping the Balls
- Outtakes Montage
- Deleted and Extended Scenes
By: Marc Ferman
