This homage to the 1988 classic “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!” is spot on. If this descendant doesn’t quite reach the heights of hilarious absurdity in the original, it comes darn close. Prepared to scoff at the audacity of redoing a classic, “The Naked Gun” had me at hello. Directed by Akiva Schaffer and written by Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Schaffer, the film is loaded up with sight gags similar to the original film and two leads worthy of this “son of” remake. Not a word-for-word or joke-for-joke copy, the end result is so smooth you could swear you’d been there before, because, of course, you had.
Comedy this ridiculous depends on how it’s delivered, and here is where the director and writers struck gold. Like Leslie Nielsen before him, Liam Neeson is primarily known for his dramatic roles. And just like Nielsen, it was impossible to imagine him delivering comedic lines. But deliver he does because Neeson was well aware that no matter the material, you take the dialogue and character seriously. He says his lines as though they are as profound as Shakespeare; he never plays for laughs. And that is what makes you laugh all the harder. Whether his pants are around his ankles or he’s dispatching bad guys right and left with an ever- present coffee in one hand and a Glock in the other, he plays it straight.
Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Neeson) has followed in his father’s footsteps and works at the Los Angeles Police Squad under the very dour leadership of Chief Davis (CCH Pounder). Working with partner Ed Hocken Jr., they are called to a robbery in progress at a local bank. Dispatching the bad guys single-handedly, literally and figuratively, they misunderstood that the real goal of the theft wasn’t the money; it was the contents of a safe deposit box and the first silly sight gag. Henchman Sig Gustafson has retrieved an electronic box labeled “P.L.O.T. device.” PLOT is an acronym for something I can’t remember, but it’s emblematic of the kinds of jokes and “plot devices” that will follow.
Dismissed from this particular investigation because of his dubious tactics, Drebin is reassigned to traffic detail and a fatal crash on the PCH in Malibu. The dead guy and presumed suicide, Simon Davenport, worked for tech billionaire Richard Cane and something is rotten in the state of, well something is rotten. Waiting for him back at headquarters is Simon’s sister Beth. She’s convinced he was murdered for something he found out and Cane is at the root of it. While not entirely dismissed (it’s tough to dismiss a double-D dish like Beth), Drebin assures her he’ll look into it.
The very charming Richard Cane is one slippery devil and his nefarious plot and Plot Device will change the world as we know it. Meeting Drebin at a club he owns, Cane knows he must get him on his side and gifts him a state-of-the-art electric car. Gee, I wonder who they modeled their archvillain after? Tech billionaire, electric car manufacturer, overarching political ambitions. Hmm, I wonder. Because great minds think alike (hint: that was sarcasm), Beth also turns up at the club. It’s a well-worn and clichéd script gimmick, but there’s always a femme fatale who will either help or gum up the works. Drebin uses her to distract Cane as he tricks his way into the private office where the CCTV is kept.
In most good comedies, it’s the throwaway lines and references that are the funniest. Leeringly attempting to seduce Beth, Cane pours her his best wine. “What is it?” she asks. “It’s from Bill Cosby’s special reserve,” he responds. Beth and Drebin are found out but escape to a cabin in the mountains where they ogle each other in a very PG-13 way, although there is the suggestion of a threesome with Frosty the Snowman.
Will Drebin get his man? Will Beth get hers? Obviously. But the road to success is full of hilarious potholes and all of them lead to the downtown PonziScheme.com Arena where Cane will start to execute his plan during a WWF competition. Every time I saw the name of the sports arena, I guffawed. It was one of those gags that never got old given the allusion to the Crypto.com Arena.
Over and over, never stopping to breathe, the writing/directing triumvirate threw joke after joke, sight gag after sight gag, at the wall to see what would stick. And more did than didn’t. The plot and all its devices are incidental; the execution is in the delivery. The humor is soft, sophomoric and endless. It’s check your brain at the door, sit back and enjoy.
The casting was wonderful and inventive. Playing Beth is the stacked and statuesque Pamela Anderson. Poured into her costumes, she never vamps and takes her comedy seriously. She’s actually an improvement over Priscilla Presley who was the girlfriend and foil to Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin (Sr.). Don’t blink, but Presley has a single shot cameo toward the middle of the film. Paul Walter Hauser plays Ed Hocken Jr. (Sr. was played by George Kennedy in the original). He’s a good straight man and a very versatile actor. He won an Emmy playing a serial killer in “Black Bird” and can now be seen in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.”
Danny Huston, Richard Cane, is the suave tech billionaire you love to hate. He has presence and his voice is full of gravitas. Like everyone else in this film, he took his work seriously and that makes it all the more fun. A pity he wasn’t called on to play Lex Luthor in the recent “Superman” movie.
Enough cannot be said about Liam Neeson, who carries this film on his shoulders. Age and responsibility weigh on his deeply lined, expressive face and soulful eyes, making him all the more believable when things carom out of control. He acquitted himself nicely in what could have been a thankless comparison.
“The Naked Gun” won’t be a classic; there’s probably only room for one of them on the classics shelf. But it’s funny and diverting and definitely worth your time whether you’re 8 or 80. Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Akiva Schaffer have given us a respite from tense times. It might have been appropriate if more credit had been accorded to Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker, the writers of “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad.” They created the original characters, or rather the “fathers” upon whom this new film was based, but so many of the sight gags were also inspired by them.
The current creative team was ably abetted by their editor Brian Scott Olds, prop master Kyla Dill and a large special effects team. Costume designers Betsy Heimann and Maria Tortu should get special mention if only for showing that the middle-aged Anderson still has every curve in the right place. Composer Lorne Balfe’s music sped things along, but no credit was given to original composer, Ira Newborn, whose theme music occasionally poked through.
It may be a remake but “The Naked Gun” is an original in its own way and should find a wide audience looking for more at the movies than air conditioning and superheroes.
Opening wide on Aug. 1.
