Ben Cahlamer
There’s a joke in 1988’s The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad in which Detective Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) and Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley) are having dinner in front of a roaring fireplace, where Drebin describes his current romantic trajectory:
“It’s the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day.”
Listening intently, Jane asks, dryly, “Goodyear?” Drebin responds plainly, “No, it was the worst.”
While the play on words is what sells the scene, the dry, say style of delivery of a time gone— for the character and for the audience—reflects perfectly into a humorous void nearly forty years later with Akiva Schaffer’s The Naked Gun featuring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr, as it hits theater screens this weekend.
Gone from the film’s title is the reference to Police Squad, though the division of the LAPD markings is as plain as day throughout the film. Schaffer, who is credited along with writers Dan Gregor (Most Likely to Murder) and Doug Mand (Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers), uses the original film’s framework in an attempt to bring Drebin’s offspring into the modern era. Pamela Anderson co-stars as Beth Davenport, as a series of questionable murder cases are brought to Drebin’s attention, and then promptly pulled away from him by his chief, Davis (CCH Pounder).
Neeson plays Drebin with the stature of a noirish detective, gruff and unassuming, not as a procedural detective like his father would have been. For those who grew up with the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker (Z-A-Z) television series of 1982 and its trilogy of films in the late 80s/early 90s, Schaffer’s The Naked Gun is not your father’s Naked Gun.
The story itself is breezy, and not-necessarily-light-on-its-feet comedy-wise. It plays to the strengths of a comedy from a bygone era, bringing the visual gags forward and in the background with glee while integrating current sensibilties, like an aimless, hapless, dangerous villain (Danny Huston), whose bent is on protecting the wealthy in a secret project that’s not so secret (shocker!) with Drebin hotly, ineptly, conveniently on his trail, towing Paul Walter Hauser’s Captain Ed Hocken Jr. from behind.
If there’s one overt criminal act that The Naked Gun conspires to commit, it is the supporting cast who suffers, namely Hauser. Ed Hocken Jr. is a legacy character, and he’s along for the ride, enjoying himself. Neeson’s long reach allows Hauser to take his place on the screen, but is far more utilitarian than George Kennedy’s Hocken was. Whether this happened in the editing room or is a by-product of the script is anyone’s guess at this point.
This critic was left in a void of confusion, though. Sure, the humor hits. However, comedy and storytelling in general is not what it once was. It is far more calculated today, based on algorithms and data, rather than intuitive improvisation, and situations that, on their surface might not seem funny to everyone, but are indeed funny. Here, the story doesn’t allow its characters to lead. Rather the story leads its characters, often over explaining what should be left to the viewer’s imagination.
Much like Drebin singing a tune badly, these protestations are going to fall on deaf ears, possibly. In case it isn’t clear, The Naked Gun constantly breaks its fourth wall, with a gleam in its eye. Shaffer isn’t Z-A-Z, and he makes no bones about that, and that’s Schaffer’s strength.
Speaking of the love story with Anderson’s Davenport, her chemistry with Neeson is exceptional, though her character is more of a sleuthing equal rather than Jane, who started as a funny-face and ended up being a true lover. There’s depth that’s sadly missing from this Naked Gun. Digressions aside, Schaffer spent time with the actress getting the look right, and Anderson plays it to the literal hilt. Anderson was originally supposed to star opposite Nielsen in 1994’s Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, but she was replaced with Anna Nicole Smith.
Therein lies the rub with resurrecting a comedy format from the dead – Schaffer finds the situational beats by “adapting” the original film’s screenplay, Neeson plays them exceptionally well, the story flows, and the love story with Anderson’s Beth Davenport hits its marks. Neeson and Huston square off effectively, even if Huston is far more cartoonish than Ricardo Montalban ever was. Neeson, Anderson, and Pounder deliver deadpan humor like it never went out of style. For example, a running gag involving Pounder’s Davis and her husband is a new development and is the gem of the film. Akiva Shaffer and producer Seth MacFarlane poke fun at what ails general society today, or people we’ve quietly or loudly canceled. The prodding of this attitude isn’t situational. Instead, it’s relativistic in terms of fundamental storytelling and character development.
The Naked Gun is not an entirely calculated affair or release. In the current environment of sequels, prequels, and franchises, The Naked Gun is an attempt to resurrect a character that people still talk about all these years later. Liam Neeson brings his edge to Frank Drebin, Jr. In that way, it plays more along the lines of Greg Mottola’s Confess, Fletch from 2022, resurrecting a character an audience loved with an actor and director who understood the source material into a commodity that can be squeezed dry. Neeson carries Nielsen’s legacy well, and yes, the humor works (stay through the end credits, please), until it doesn’t.
As light as this new film is, are we going to remember The Naked Gun? Some of us will. Some of us won’t. As much as this review beats the void up that The Naked Gun sits in, it is theatrical in its look and feel, something a lot of rehashes miss today as they head directly for premium on demand or a streaming service. Maybe Shaffer and MacFarlane are right, though. We just needed a good jolt on the funny bone, and for its short, 85-minute run time, The Naked Gun beats its drum, toots its own horn, and shouts from the rooftop loudly.
