‘The Naked Gun’ Review

‘The Bear’, the FX series about people trying to break through in the Chicago restaurant industry, won the Emmy for Best Comedy Series in 2023. I enjoy ‘The Bear’, but when I consider the adjectives I’d use to describe it – stressful, frustrating, chaotic, traumatizing – funny doesn’t appear highly on the list. Sure, there are comedic moments on occasion, but those are a garnish on an emotional exploration of the blue collar people coming together to build something special.

That victory in 2023 felt like a final death knell on the more pure comedy format that for so long dominated mainstream movies and TV. Sometimes it feels like it’s not enough to just be funny. A movie needs to be commenting on real world parallels, satirizing the powerful, or exploring the interior depth of its characters.

‘The Naked Gun’, the newest installment to the classic Zuker Bros spoof franchise, is the exact opposite of ‘The Bear’: there is not a serious moment in the entire film and it is all the better for it. Liam Neeson’s take on the genre is a worthy follow up to Leslie Nielsen’s original ‘Naked Gun’ films, a delightful testament that sometimes it’s okay to just be a silly, mindless comedy.

And let’s be clear: this movie is dumb dumb.

Liam Neeson stars in the role of Frank Drebin Jr, the son of the original franchise’s Lt. Frank Drebin, played to deadpan perfection by Leslie Nielsen. Drebin, believing there’s a connection between a recent bank robbery and a murder, ignores orders from Chief Davis (CCH Pounder) and strives to unravel a conspiracy involving tech magnate Richard Cane (Danny Huston) with the help of his partner Ed Hocken Jr (Paul Walter Hauser) and the murdered man’s sister, Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson).

Now, the plot doesn’t matter, it’s only there to justify having a movie at all. The real goal of ‘The Naked Gun’ is to pack as many gags as possible into its brisk 85 minute runtime. The jokes are relentless, each time one fails to land another steps in to take its place almost immediately. Some gags repeat throughout the film, while others are one offs appearing in the background and never addressed again. There are double entendres, visual puns, and the kind of raunchy sex and poop jokes that will certainly do numbers with legions of teenagers.

The art of comedic acting is to know that the characters shouldn’t think what they’re saying is a joke, line readings need to be earnest and honest. As bizarro versions of their more established dramatic personas, Liam Neeson, CCH Pounder, Danny Huston and the entire cast weaponize their dramatic bonafides to maximize the silliness of every single line reading.

Paul Walter Hauser as Ed Hocken Jr. appears for a relatively small amount of the screentime, and yet contributes some of the best jokes, whether he’s working a beer stand at a WWFC fight or helping Drebin out with an interrogation. He doesn’t shout his one liners to be heard, but rather trusts the audience will hear them even with a subdued delivery, as done with perhaps my favorite exchange in the whole film:

“You can’t fight City Hall”, says Drebin.

“No, you can’t”, replies Hocken. “It’s a building.”

I can’t say that I laughed out loud too much throughout the film, but I was smiling constantly at the Looney Tunes logic and the willingness to be unendingly silly. Comedy can be so many things, and has been done beautifully in film and TV to explore insecurities and worldviews that through a more straightforward dramatic lens would be rendered insincere.

But I hope comedians and filmmakers remember that there’s no shame in simply trying to be as funny as absolutely possible. With committed performances and breakneck pacing of jokes, ‘The Naked Gun’ is proof that a modern comedy doesn’t need to be constantly challenging conventions, as at the end of the day there’s no real replacement for tried-and-true, good ol’ fashioned lowbrow humor.

The Naked Gun
Rated PG-13 for crude/sexual material, violence/bloody images and brief partial nudity.
Running Time: 1 hour and 25 minutes

Director Akiva Schaffer
Writers Dan Gregor, Doug Mand, Akiva Schaffer
Stars Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand, Danny Huston
Rating PG-13
Running Time 85 Minutes
Genres Action, Comedy