REVIEW — “The Naked Gun”

From director Akiva Schaffer (Saturday Night Live, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping) and producer Seth MacFarlane (Ted, Family Guy), The Naked Gun stars Liam Neeson as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., a cop following in his late father’s footsteps at Police Squad! As Drebin unravels a secret conspiracy, he soon discovers he is the only man who has the particular set of skills needed to stop bad guy Richard Cain (Danny Huston) and save the world.

As Lt. Frank Drebin Jr, Neeson really does Leslie Nielsen proud, selling the film with his signature stone cold seriousness while delivering the silliest of lines. It’s an against-type deadpan comedic performance that the actor has displayed in other MacFarlane productions like Ted 2 and A Million Ways to Die in the West. The prestigious actor really throws his stoic image aside and goes for it during a hilarious bodycam viewing scene that captures Drebin regrettably bingeing chili dogs while on patrol.

Pamela Anderson is delightful as Drebin’s femme fatale romantic love interest, Beth. After a comeback role in last year’s The Last Showgirl, the actress gets to channel her silly side, showing off her unbridled lunacy in a particularly wacky scat scene and another surreal montage with a jealous snowman at a snowy cabin.

As Capt. Ed Hocken Jr., the always reliable Paul Walter Hauser delivers some of the film’s best one liners and sight gags. He plays a great sidekick, and I could watch an entire spinoff featuring his character. Also joining the case are CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, Cody Rhodes, Liza Koshy, Eddie Yu and Busta Rhymes.

Admittedly, spoof comedy is hard (just look at the Scary Movie series), so it can be difficult to sustain a certain quality of laughs for a film’s entire running time (or resist the temptation to go for cheap ones). Whereas this Naked Gun entry starts as a solid detective noir spoof, it, unfortunately, begins to unravel into a broader wacky comedy that gets less funny as it goes along.

While I enjoyed writers Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Schaffer’s take on 2022’s Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers reboot, their Naked Gun reboot is missing the constant zany ZAZ (Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker) energy of the original film series. The Nielsen-led films were overstuffed with jokes and an abundance of kooky cameos (including returning series mainstay, “Weird Al” Yankovic). They had so many blink-and-you’ll-miss gags that you had to rewind the film because they were either too rapid-fire to process or completely drowned out by laughter.

After a strong start and a legitimately laugh-out-loud first half, The Naked Gun eventually runs out of comedy ammo as it limps to its conclusion. In fact, the last act of this movie was met with only a few polite chuckles at my screening, likely a product of the first half’s earned goodwill. I love spoof movies and big-screen comedies, so I hope this film experiences the same kind of longevity as its predecessors. But, if you’re going to attempt a reboot of a cleverly crude and over-the-top silly staple of the 80s and 90s, then you’ve really got to go for it. Instead, The Naked Gun (2025) often settles for juvenile jokes and sophomoric sight gags that will only elicit giggles from 12-year-olds. You may want to stick around for a subtly funny credit roll and end-credits scene, but don’t get your hopes up for anything memorable. 2.5/5

Rated PG-13 with a running time of 1 hour, 25 minutes, The Naked Gun opens in theaters August 1, 2025.