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The Naked Gun | The Deight Night Review

From writer/director Akiva Schaffer, one third of The Lonely Island, comes a comedy reboot of the beloved Leslie Nielsen helmed slapstick comedy franchise The Naked Gun. This is also brought to cinemas with the help of legendary comedy writer and now producer Seth MacFarlane, an obvious fan of the classic franchise with half of the jokes in the earlier seasons of his most famous work, Family Guy, being a "homage" to many entries of The Naked Gun. With the passing of Leslie Nielsen in 2010, lead officer of Police Squad has been passed down to Frank Drebin's son, Frank Drebin Junior, played by Liam Neeson. After thwarting a bank robbery single handedly in true Naked Gun fashion, Drebin Jr. is called to investigate a mysterious electric car related death that he writes off as a suicide. He's then confronted by the sister of the victim (Pamela Anderson) and with her help, starts to unravel a dark conspiracy that leads the pair down a path of danger, threat and, most importantly, ridiculous hijinks. 

The Naked Gun is one of the toughest watches of the year, not because it's terrible or cringe inducing, but because it's so raucously funny that it's hard to find time to breathe through all the laughter it induces. The first act especially, doesn't take any hostages and goes straight for the kill, with what feels like a joke per second. As with any comedy, not every joke is hysterical but that doesn't matter as the frequency of deadly jokes is so high that the less funny moments don't give enough time to recover. The humour is so ridiculous, so stupid and so nonsensical that it becomes complete genius. It's hard not to compare it to films like Deadpool, which tried to make the same sort of meta jokes but failed in every way The Naked Gun succeeds. But the film doesn't rely on references with a short expiry date and the personality of its lead, like the aforementioned super-powered comedy, its humour is based almost solely on complete stupidity. Though the film does share flaws with similar action-comedies and gets unfortunately bogged down with its plot in its third act, leading to it being just a silly version of the films that it's parodying rather than the generational spoof that it is for the majority of its runtime. 

The brightest star of The Naked Gun is Liam Neeson, who's past roles of playing stoic mentors, Holocaust liberators and, of course, a wide variety of grizzled cops and secret agents, adds completely to the devastating comedy of Frank Drebin Jr.. The genius of the film and Neeson's performance is that he brings the same energy that he would bring to films like Taken and The Commuter and becomes a deadpan and somewhat geriatric version of his previous characters, while also being a perfect homage to Leslie Nielsen's original character. Whether he's stopping a robbery by eating the culprit's gun, handing in body cam evidence that shows him desperately searching for a toilet or getting a call from his mum while sneaking around for evidence, Neeson brings a bewildered and manic energy to this film in a performance that's so different yet so similar to his usual work and is a testament to his powers as an actor. 

Neeson isn't alone in this cast of hilariously serious performances. Pamela Anderson gave an incredibly powerful performance as the broken and troubled Shelly in her previous film, The Last Showgirl. In The Naked Gun, she brings that same energy to Beth Davenport, bringing a romantic interest that's just as capable at bringing the laughs as her lead, instead of being the character that lovingly reacts to the main character's wacky behaviour as is so often the case with many comedy films. Anderson's straight-faced deliveries of the film's overwhelming number of puns is perfection and much like Neeson is perfect at making some of the most ridiculous moments seem natural and all the funnier. As well as Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser is great as Drebin's sidekick, Ed Hocken Junior and Danny Huston and Kevin Durand bring just as many laughs as the film's villains.

The Naked Gun is a throwback to a bygone era, where comedies were ridiculous, carefree and unbearably funny. With a possible career changing performance from Liam Neeson and a lethal onslaught of slapstick and absurdist humour, Akiva Schaffer's reboot joins the likes of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Zoolander and Tropic Thunder in the hall of great American comedies that bring idiotic joy with every frame. It doesn't redefine the genre, but it's certainly reinvigorated it and is very much worth watching with an audience. And make sure to stay through the credits!

⭐⭐⭐⭐


The Naked Gun releases in UK Cinemas on August 1st


 

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