If The Naked Gun was a butt, the toilet would beg for the brown. Translation: The Naked Gun is much funnier than this review will be, a faithful and absurd follow-up to the beloved Leslie Nielsen originals that is as ridiculous as you’d expect–maybe more ridiculous, even.
My big worry going into this picture, which has the perfectly cast Liam Neeson playing Frank Jr. (son of Nielsen’s character), was whether my taste in humor no longer aligned to what director Akiva Schaffer is dishing. I loved The Naked Gun movies when I was a kid, but it’s been nearly 30 years since I’ve watched them. While I still love some of the comedies from the era, my preferred style of humor these days is quite different.
Amazingly, this new Gun That Is Naked still had me laughing. Maybe not as much as I would have when I was 10, but it’s a pretty damn funny movie that is packed with jokes, which are packed with jokes within jokes. Schaffer, working from a screenplay he wrote with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, throws a thousand physical and verbal gags at the screen. Not every joke sticks, but it really doesn’t matter because the movie will have already moved onto the next.
Neeson is great, bringing the right level of self-seriousness to the role as he plays someone who is so ignorantly oblivious. Once you see him playing Frank Jr., it’s hard to picture who else could have stopped into the character.
Pamela Anderson is also a highlight, and shares great chemistry with Neeson (they are dating in real life).
The Naked Gun, which clocks in at a beautifully short 85 minutes (though the end credits started to play at the 75-minute mark!), is relentlessly entertaining–and efficiently so. From the off-the-wall dialogue to dream sequences including a horny but deadly snowman, you never know which direction this movie is going to swing at any given moment.
Thank the Lord Jesus for the runtime–it’s the perfect length. Much longer and the humor would start to wear out its welcome, and there are moments where the slapstick starts to wear on you. Not that the plot really matters, but the plot isn’t very interesting. Danny Huston has played the same kind of villain so many times he’s tiring to watch. As funny as it is in the moment, I won’t go out of my way to watch it again.
The Naked Gun fires exactly as it is intended, and for that it should be commended. Rebooting a 30-year-old comedy franchise is no easy feat, but Schaffer nails it. It’s funny, it’s ridiculous, and it’s short as hell. It may not be the kind of comedy I clamber for these days, but that doesn’t make it any less good.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.
