‘The Naked Gun’ review: Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson headline pleasingly reverential comedy sequel

Dir: Akiva Schaffer. US. 2025. 85mins.

The Bare Gun is pleasingly reverential to its supply materials, which is one other means of claiming it’s as splendidly silly as its predecessors. Thirty-seven years after the unique Bare Gun – the hit cop-comedy starring Leslie Nielsen that spawned two sequels – this new movie doesn’t have Nielsen or the unique trilogy’s artistic mind belief. However director Akiva Schaffer and actor Liam Neeson pull off a persistently amusing facsimile, full with the identical sorts of dopey gags, groanworthy one-liners and ridiculous pop-culture referencing that made the 1988 movie so beloved.

It takes actual smarts to maintain the crowdpleasing silliness zipping alongside

Paramount Photos unveils The Bare Gun within the UK and US on August 1, some 31 years after the ultimate Nielsen instalment, Bare Gun 33 1/3: The Remaining Insult. At a time when studio comedies have turn into virtually an endangered species on the massive display screen, The Bare Gun’s theatrical efficiency might be value monitoring and good buzz ought to assist bolster field workplace. Producer Seth MacFarlane, greatest recognized for the long-running animated sitcom Household Man and his smash movie Ted, might additionally elevate the image’s profile amongst its goal demographic.

Neeson performs Frank Drebin Jr, the son of Nielsen’s clueless (and now deceased) LAPD detective, who, like his father earlier than him, works for Police Squad. Whereas investigating the suicide of a tech firm worker, Frank Jr meets the person’s sister, a true-crime novelist named Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), who insists her brother was murdered. Frank Jr’s pursuit of the reality leads him to Richard Cane (Danny Huston), the rich, unscrupulous tech firm head, who’s secretly planning to eradicate most of humanity in order that solely the elite survive.

Primarily based on their short-lived ABC sitcom Police Squad!, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker’s Bare Gun (1988) adopted the identical surefire comedic method as their 1980 parody masterpiece Airplane!. With Nielsen (who died in 2010) reprising his TV position as Frank Drebin, Bare Gun consisted of nonstop visible and verbal jokes, usually sending up cop-show clichés whereas providing oodles of slapstick, scatalogical humour and the occasional risque sexual innuendo. This new outing honours that proudly sophomoric custom by piling on the punchlines and sight gags, barely ready for the viewers to recuperate from one gag earlier than introducing the subsequent.

Veteran tough-guy motion star Neeson has beforehand flashed a self-mocking sense of humour in MacFarlane’s A Million Methods To Die In The West and the Ricky Gervais/Stephen Service provider collection Life’s Too Brief, Like Neilsen earlier than him, he performs his Bare Gun character with deadpan sincerity, irrespective of how silly Frank Jr comes throughout. Neeson can’t fairly recapture Nielsen’s playful, loose-limbed absurdity, however his growly supply of the character’s inane dialogue generates loads of laughs. Frank Jr is as obtuse but unerringly assured as his outdated man, which ends up in myriad moments when he says or does the mistaken factor, solely slowly realising his mistake after everybody round him.

Neeson exhibits pleasant chemistry with Anderson, who has enjoyable together with her underdeveloped position because the love curiosity. After incomes kudos for her compelling dramatic flip in The Final Showgirl, Anderson brings the correct amount of winking femme-fatale power to The Bare Gun. Frank Jr and Beth’s budding attraction offers one of many movie’s most interesting sequences: a knowingly tacky romantic montage that all of a sudden goes in an surprising and hilarious course.

Followers of the unique trilogy will recognise pretty delicate callbacks, however Schaffer (who’s one-third of the comedic collective Lonely Island, and beforehand directed Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers and co-directed Popstar: By no means Cease By no means Stopping) pays potent tribute to these movies by confidently channelling their irreverent spirit. Working with cinematographer Brandon Trost, Schaffer ensures the background often accommodates a goofy throwaway joke, whereas composer Lorne Balfe slyly remembers the smooth scores from quite a few motion thrillers, all within the title of emphasising the tomfoolery on display screen.

However Schaffer’s formal technique by no means will get in the best way of the relentless stream of jokes, which goal every little thing from annoying advertisements in YouTube movies to the illogical parts of Mission: Inconceivable. The Bare Gun is as unabashedly juvenile as its predecessors, however the humour’s good-natured cheerfulness retains it from feeling merciless or crass. Which isn’t to say Schaffer and his writers keep away from extra pointed jokes on the expense of OJ Simpson, Invoice Cosby and endemic police brutality. This movie could appear silly, however it takes actual smarts — and loads of pleasure — to maintain the crowdpleasing silliness zipping alongside.