Del and Mladen review ‘The Naked Gun’

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

“The Naked Gun” Starring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., Pamela Anderson as Beth Davenport, Paul Walter Hauser as Ed Hocken Jr., Danny Huston as Richard Cane CCH Pounder as Chief Davis. Directed by Akiva Schaffer. 1 hour, 25 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theatrical release.

Plot synopsis: The son of legendary police detective Frank Drebin must figure out who murdered a software engineer and simultaneously prevent the closure of Police Squad.

Spoilers: Some.

Del’s take

No matter WHAT Mopey Mladen writes in his review of “The Naked Gun,” know this: He giggled throughout the movie, from the opening bank heist scene to the closing credits where the on-set salad dressings were revealed – Russian, French, Italian and vinaigrette.

That’s because “The Naked Gun” is a hilarious movie – vulgar, profane, childish, all of those things, but funny as hell and a needed respite from the depressing comedy of errors playing across the nightly news these days. Liam Neeson is a worthy successor to Leslie Nielsen as he eats guns, swills bottomless cups of coffee and navigates his way through a steamy threesome with Pamela Anderson and a … er … snowman?

“The Naked Gun” captures the manic and absurd slapstick of the first “Naked Gun” and reprises several of the gags featured in that movie (the tear-away suit, for instance). In fact, Nielsen shows up in the 2025 “Naked Gun,” kinda sorta, as does another of the 1988 film’s cast, O.J. Simpson. (I told you it was vulgar.) Also spotted: Dave Bautista and Weird Al Yankovic. No sign of Priscilla Presley.

I’ve long been a fan of Three Stooges-style physical comedy and “Naked Gun,” just as its predecessor, does not disappoint. Neeson uses the “body” of a bank robber to shield himself from the bullets of other bank robbers, rips the arms off a bad guy then uses said arms to bitch slap said bad guy, and tears down half the police station after he forgets to unhook the charger and drives off in an electric car. All that’s missing is the hollow coconut conking sound.

But the humor operates on different levels. Neeson’s performance is a teasing homage to his tough-guy roles in movies like “Taken” and “Non-Stop.” And the wild double entendres are enough to keep any linguist’s eyes batting back and forth as if he or she was watching the spoken equivalent of the Wimbledon finals. It carries into the closing theme song, delivered in a goofy lounge lizard style, and even the credits, with lots and lots of Easter eggs for the discerning eye. Speaking of which, there’s a short Easter egg at the very end, so be sure to stick it out until the lights come up.

Akiva Schaffer brings his comedy chops to the direction (Saturday Night Live, “Pop Star: Never Stop, Never Stopping”) and joins Dan Gregor and Doug Mand in writing the clever, clever script:

“It says here you served 20 years for man’s laughter.”

“You mean ‘manslaughter’?”

“Must have been quite the joke.”

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

My only complaint: the snowman scene. It was over-the-top weird.

After “The Naked Gun” I can say with complete confidence that I will never, EVER be able to spy on a man, woman and a dog with Star Wars-style infrared binoculars and be the same person again. EVER.

Grade: A-.

Mladen’s take

Is it possible for a comedy movie to have too much comedy? Yes, I say to thee. The recently released “The Naked Gun” is an example.

I’ll partition the film into thirds (roughly) to make my case. I do this, in part, because Del used only two-thirds of his brain to write his review.

The first portion of the first third of “The Naked Gun” is very funny. It riffs the “Mission Impossible” use of impossible physical disguises to fool the enemy. The biology of reflex or capacity to absorb physical abuse in action movies such as the immortal John Wicks – or, really, any film where the good guy or gal seeks revenge, runs after getting set up for a crime he or she didn’t commit, or chases commies, terrorists, or rogue billionaires – are also targets.

Then, the satire and slapstick morphs past silliness. You expect silliness in an homage to the original “The Naked Gun” but the new “The Naked Gun” often crash lands on the helipad of ridiculousness. Del mentions the Snowman. Well, Del, what about the O

owl, huh? There’s word play causing misunderstanding. There’s word play dipped as sexual innuendo. And, there’s word play that shows dumbness. And, it’s happening all the time.

The second third of the movie has a funny run exploiting the peril of perspective. A bad guy uses a pair of infrared binoculars to spy on Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) and Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson) making dinner and taking care of a dog. One moment you see what the peeping Tom perp is seeing through his high-tech spyglasses and the next what is actually happening in Drebin’s apartment.

The third third of “The Naked Gun” is funny. The last stretch of the last third of the movie takes a shot at the self-delusional hedonism of toxic masculinity that weaves its way through the film as its plot. The principal bad guy wants to return mankind to Hobbs’s state of nature but has never experienced violence and combat himself. That’s amusingly portrayed – the ideal of only the fittest surviving though the tech billionaire ain’t nowhere to being the fittest – at the end of the film.

The problem with “The Naked Gun”? Practically every scene has some sort of verbal or physical shtick happening. For me, if everything is shtick, then, eventually, nothing is funny anymore. That was not the case for Del. He giggled, chuckled, or almost laughed from the beginning to the end of the movie. Initially, I empathized with crotchety Del. The movie started out funny. Then, I sympathized with Del. The movie was trying to sustain its daffiness and I couldn’t blame Del for enjoying it. But, as the movie progressed, it became predictable and a tad tiresome.

“The Naked Gun” is a B, maybe a B-. Sometimes it just feels that the writers were throwing ideas at the wall to see if they would stick as comedy. Here and there, they missed the wall altogether. There’s no reason to see the film in a theater. The humor is perfectly fit for the small screen and the action not so boisterous or spectacular that it demands big speakers.

Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.