The Naked Gun (2025 | USA | 85 minutes | Akiva Schaffer)
One of the stupid bits of pop culture that rattles around in my head with alarming frequency—especially for something over thirty years old—is a particular episode of Seinfeld, my very favorite TV show. In this episode, George believes he’s purchased a car previously owned by the actor Jon Voight. Jerry tells him he’s likely been had because he was told the car was owned by Voight, not someone more prominent like Liam Neeson. George fires back: “Why are you comparing Liam Neeson with Jon Voight? We’re talking about Joe Buck (from Midnight Cowboy) here. If you can play Joe Buck, Oskar Schindler’s a cakewalk!”
Playing Oskar Schindler might be a cakewalk (it’s not, obviously—but let’s go with it), but playing Frank Drebin, Jr. very, very much is not. Drebin Sr., for the uninitiated, is the character made famous by the legendary (and late) slapstick actor Leslie Nielsen in the criminally-not-available-for-streaming Police Squad! TV series and its more popular offshoot, the three Naked Gun movies. Nielsen’s Drebin is a buffoonish cop who always seems to solve the case either in spite of, or because of, said buffoonery. In the new Naked Gun movie, out this weekend, Liam Neeson proves the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Known for the aforementioned Schindler’s List and a late-career turn as the most revenge-seeking movie star of the 21st century, Liam Neeson might seem like a counterintuitive choice to play Drebin Jr. (triply so, considering it would seem the Canadian Nielsen would need to procreate with the Notre Dame leprechaun to produce offspring so overtly Irish). But it’s actually an inspired choice. Neeson’s serious acting credentials make him the ideal actor to play the character (mostly) straight while allowing gags to happen all around him, all the time. Honestly, this might be among the best performances in an already-legendary career.
I’d long worried that movies like this—deadpan, slapstick, gags-at-every-moment comedies—might have died with Nielsen in 2010, since it was an art form he perfected in the Naked Gun and Airplane! movies. Even Mel Brooks (going strong at 99!) never threw so many jokes, gags, and bits at the screen at once.
Like the previous Naked Gun and Airplane! movies, the comedy here relies on puns, physical humor, deadpan, and visual gags. Most of the bits fall flat (the law of averages demands it), and the humor can sometimes be scatological and certainly not for everyone—but man, did I enjoy it. Director Akiva Schaffer, from the comedy trio the Lonely Island, clearly knows how to generate laughs in the compact 85 minute running time.
A good litmus test: if you find the pseudonym Drebin abruptly gives to Beth Davenport—his love interest, played by the also surprisingly hilarious Pamela Anderson—funny: Cherry Roosevelt Fatbozochowingdownonspaghetti—then you’re likely going to have a good time.
I’ve really enjoyed watching Anderson’s second act, which began with the Oscar-worthy performance in The Last Showgirl, and now here she reveals that she also has impeccable comedic timing. Neeson and Anderson also have great chemistry together, so it wasn’t a surprise to see they are now a real-life couple.
Of the dozens—or hundreds—of gags, I had three favorites: one was a riff on the classic “walking across the street carrying a plate of clear glass” joke; another was a reference to the most (in)famous cast member of the previous Naked Gun movies; and the third was bodycam footage of Drebin initiating a traffic stop.
The supporting cast is solid, including Paul Walter Hauser, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, and Danny Huston. Rapper Busta Rhymes has an extremely funny cameo, too.
I saw The Naked Gun at a packed preview screening, and I’d forgotten how great it feels to laugh (and groan) in sync with a room full of strangers—especially when the jokes are flying at you like you’re trying to drink from a firehose filled with airborne cream pies and dad jokes. Even the credits have jokes embedded into them. If I were more highbrow—and didn’t laugh like an idiot at jokes about what a chili dog diet does to your digestive tract —I might suggest those gags were inspired by the index in Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire. But I do, and it probably wasn’t.
I didn’t realize how much I missed comedies like this. The Naked Gun gives plenty of cheap laughs but delivers many more for the engaged viewer. Stick around until the very end—there’s one last laugh that’s worth waiting for.
The Naked Gun is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Image courtesy Paramount Pictures