Movie Review - The Naked Gun

Director: Akiva Schaffer
Genre: Comedy/ Action
Runtime: 85 minutes
Year: 2025
Starring: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Danny Huston, Paul Walter Hauser, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand,
 
Description: Only one man (Liam Neeson) has the particular set of skills – to lead Police Squad and save the world.
 
Review: “The Naked Gun” is a new film, not so much a remake of the 1988 version, but more a continuation. Because Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr., the son of the late Sr. (Leslie Nielsen). Together with his partner he is investigating a seemingly innocent accident involving a self-driving car. The victim’s sister, Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), approaches Drebin with suspicions that this is not what it seems. She turns out to be right, and Drebin starts his investigation.

That this new version takes over the same humor from the original series is immediately clear from the opening scene, in which a little schoolgirl walks into a bank during a robbery and turns out to be Liam Neeson ins disguise. You know it’s silly, but you laugh anyway.

As it should be, this film is crammed with jokes from start to finish. Not all of them are brilliant, but because they keep coming, you can’t help but laugh. The plot, present but paper-thin, is purely a hook for adding as much nonsense as possible. There is even room for a parody of Wham’s “Last Christmas” music video, which takes a very bizarre turn.

For some reason, Liam Neeson is the perfect man for the job. Known for mainly serious roles, and in the last years action films, it’s somehow a breath of fresh air to see him in such a ridiculous role. And Neeson delivering silly lines with a straight face somehow works perfectly.  

Pamela Anderson is also surprisingly funny. Her singing the fictional jazz song “Sassafras Chicken” is super weird, but kind of funny too. She is on par with Priscilla Presley (who appears in the movie for a quick second) from the original series.

The running gag in this film is the coffee joke, where Frank is always being handed a cup of coffee, no matter what situation he is in. It works best when the joke hasn’t been used for a while and then suddenly reappears in an unexpected situation. They do miss the mark a bit when the are lowering themselves to the easy poop and sex jokes, which hardly ever works for me. But fortunately they are limited.  

If you’re a fan of the original films and you like silly humor, you will not be disappointed. When the film was first announced, I never expected it to work as well as it did.

Rating: 3,5/ 5