The Naked Gun (2025)
Considering that theatrical comedies have been so sparse in recent years, it may strike younger readers as strange that not only were theatrical comedies once ubiquitous but even comedy subgenres such as parodies were a multiplex staple. With Airplane!, Top Secret, and The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! in the 1980s, the Zucker brothers and their directing partner Jim Abrahams made films that had a shotgun approach to humor. Their comedies relied on sight gags, genre satire, puns and wordplay, and more, and audiences largely responded. The '90s were full of parodies. However, many of them, even ones made by the Zuckers and Abrahams, showed diminishing quality (a few are reasonably fun and worth checking out, though) as they relied more heavily on pop culture references instead of jokes. By the 2000s, Scary Movie and its progeny ground the genre into dust. Thankfully, director Akiva Schaffer's The Naked Gun joins MacGruber and Walk Hard as the only quality parodies of the 21st century.
Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr., the
maverick tough-guy cop of Los Angeles' Police Squad. Here, he's investigating
the theft of the mysterious P.L.O.T. device by a tech billionaire (Danny
Huston) and falling in love with the sister (Pamela Anderson) of a murder
victim. While some might state that the plot doesn't really matter in something
like The Naked Gun, the fact is—it kinda does. One of the things that
differentiated the '80s parodies from most of the dreck that followed was that
they all had basic story structure and weren't just a collection of strung
together pop culture references.
Yes, The Naked Gun's sheer
quantity of jokes and gags mean that a few will land with a thud, but, to be
honest, this is true even of the classics in the parody genre. However, more of
them elicit smiles, laughs, and guffaws. The cast all understands the
assignment: The original parodies worked because the actors, especially Leslie
Nielsen, were all dead serious amidst the absurdity surrounding them. Neeson
plays Drebin no differently than he would a role in any of the countless
thrillers and action movies that he's headlined over the past 15-20 years, and
the film is better for it.
Even if theatrical comedies weren't an
endangered species, The Naked Gun would still be a fun night at the
movies. However, considering how rare they are, it feels like a breath of fresh
air. Silly comedies are never more important than they are in tough times (and
the 2020s have had a lot of those for a lot of people).
