By John Corrado
How do you reboot the classic police spoof The Naked Gun without its star Leslie Nielsen, especially when the spoof genre itself has sadly withered away over the past few decades? You hire Liam Neeson to take over the role.
Yes, that Neeson, who is best known as a dramatic actor and intense action star. To some, he might seem like an odd choice to fill Nielsen’s shoes, aside from both their names sounding sorta similar. But he’s really not. Nielsen himself was a dramatic actor, before bringing those same skills to comedy at the behest of original series creators David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, who first cast him in Airplane!
And that is the reason why this new version works so well; because it understands that the key to these movies is that the characters don’t know they are in a comedy, which hinges on the actors playing it completely straight. It’s also very, very funny. Neeson, with his gravelly voice and hint of Irish accent, delivers a wonderfully deadpan performance as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., the son of Nielsen’s iconic character.
Neeson completely nails the hardboiled detective routine, right down to Drebin’s classic narration, which has the tone of Old Hollywood noir, but with every line and aphorism being completely absurd and ridiculous. This new version also works because it understands how much fun it is to laugh out loud in a packed movie theatre. Directed by Akiva Schaffer (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers), the film’s one and only goal is to make us giggle uncontrollably for 85 minutes (that short runtime is another holdover from the original trilogy). And it succeeds.
Neeson’s Drebin Jr. is the sort of old school cop who has his own way of doing things, constantly putting him in hot water with Chief Davis (CCH Pounder) at Police Squad. The film opens with him thwarting a bank robbery that leaves the bad guys in possession of a dangerous P.L.O.T. Device. This leads him to investigating a case involving tech billionaire Richard Cane (Danny Huston) and his henchman (Kevin Durand).
This also leads Drebin to the sultry Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), a mysterious femme fatale who appears in his office. Anderson steals the show, with her great comic timing and chemistry with Neeson (the two are reportedly now dating in real life, not a shock after seeing the movie). Ditto Paul Walter Hauser, who is very amusing in his role as Captain Ed Hocken Jr., Drebin’s right hand man.
The film avoids the pitfalls of other reboots and legacy sequels by being its own thing, while also very much in the spirit of the originals. We do get callbacks and references, but Schaffer doesn’t overdo it, instead setting up new running gags throughout his film. The biggest way that Schaffer pays tribute to the original series is that he fully commits to following the same multiple gags a minute formula. The goal is that, if one or two don’t quite land, well, the next ten will.
It’s a hard thing to pull off, especially this well, and with this high of a batting average. The screenplay, which Schaffer co-wrote with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, is consistently funny, capturing the same brand of humour as the originals. This means that the film is chock-full of puns, plays on words, and outrageous visual gags, while also not discriminating between genuinely clever wordplay and more scatological humour.
It’s also a comedy that actually feels like it has a bit of an edge to it, without being “woke” or, conversely, retroactively offensive just for the sake of it. In an age of sanitized humour, or comedies not being given a theatrical release at all (case in point, Happy Gilmore 2 just went straight to Netflix), there is something refreshing about all of this. In short, The Naked Gun is a lot of fun. You should go see it. Sometimes it’s nice to just laugh your head off in a room full of strangers.
As a side note, Paramount’s marketing for the film has also been very clever, with one of the best advertisements being this satirical PSA featuring Neeson talking about the importance of saving theatrical comedies. It might be a joke, but the commitment to giving The Naked Gun a theatrical release should be celebrated. This film doing well at the box office will hopefully lead to more comedies being released in theatres, which will be good for all of us.
Film Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)
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