Liam Neeson stars as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. Drebin is a United States policeman, who is forced to live up to his father’s legend. He finally gets the chance to prove himself when the sultry blond Beth (Pamela Anderson) comes to him with a case. If successful, not only will he make a name for himself outside of the family heritage, but he may salvage the reputation of the Police Squad itself.
The Naked Gun is more of a sequel than a remake of The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (David Zucker, 1988), as the film establishes that Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin Sr. is remembered fondly/wackily by those who worked with him. In some ways, the 2025 film is more Naked Gun: The Next Generation, although time will tell if this spawns two lacklustre sequels like the original did.
Based on quality, it shouldn’t. Neeson is simply dire as the lead. Comedy isn’t his forte, and he visibly winces at every joke. It doesn’t help that one of the comedic setpieces involves Drebin racing to a toilet, a gag that could have been written by a five-year-old. Anderson too looks uncomfortable in the role of sensual dame, never fully acquitting to the role despite her obvious good looks.
As stories go, Akiva Schaffer ‘s work bears no agenda than to throw out some jokes. It makes no commentary about Covid, America’s relations to the Middle East, or an insight into the Trump administration. All The Naked Gun proves to be is 85 minutes of puns, many of them crass. There is, admittedly, one tidy dig at O.J. Simpson, who co-starred in the original movie, but many of the others fall flat. “You’re here for man’s laughter”, Drebin sneers at a convict, a retort that sounds like the empty joke that falls out of a Christmas cracker.
The Naked Gun tries to be grittier than the 1988 movie, but never fully commits to the idea. There are disembodied limbs, sure, but nothing that will stun anyone over the age of 10. Neeson is too sombre to commit to the slapstick setpieces, parading like an action star who inadvertently found himself on the wrong film-set.Considering the gun epidemic in the United States of America, it’s curious that the writers chose not to make a critique on the real life scenario. There are no wise-cracks made about this true obsession with purchasing fire arms.
For the most part, this feature is a mostly vacuous experience, and does nothing to prove why a fourth Naked Gun film was needed – for one thing, the third of the movies starring Nielsen, Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: The Final Insult (Peter Segal, 1994) came out more than three decades ago. Rather than reinvent the formula, Schaffer relies on tried-and-tested jokes audiences have seen a dozen times before. (When she’s asked to “take a chair”, Beth walks out the door with one trailing behind her). The tough-no nonsense boss, the sultry girlfriend, the hapless cop who thinks he’s a genius…It’s all been done before, and infinitely better in the original movie.
Oddly, the most genuinely inspired and contemporary jokes are saved for the closing credits. Digs at Netflix populate the closing minutes, bringing a bite that was curiously absent from the rest of the project. Lorne Balfe’s score brings an electricity that compensates for the lack of comedic panache, counermelodies swimming beneath the torrent of eye-rolling zingers. It would be churlish to say “avoid the flick and buy the soundtrack”, as the music hinges on the imagery, but without Balfe’s input, this venture would be a sore experience to sit through.
The Naked Gun is in cinemas on Friday, August 1st.
