I’ve recently been ranting about the downside of violent dark comedies.  Well here is a genuine comedy, and it isn’t much better.  Comedy is a personal matter, and silliness like this film is just not my cup of tea.  The original Naked Gun was genuinely funny back in 1988, and Airplane is almost as good.  But most silly stuff like this just fails to make me laugh.

Akiva Schaeffer’s film pays homage to its predecessor in a couple of ways.  In one of the better scenes Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson), Ed Hocken Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser) and Not Norberg Jr. (Moses Jones) pay tribute to their fathers’ Police Squad service (plaques honoring Leslie Nielsen, George Kennedy and O. J. Simpson).  Drebin Jr. foils a bank robbery and then ties it to the plot of a technology wizard (Danny Huston) to change the world.  The widow (Pamela Anderson) of a victim works to solve the case by herself but ends up working with Drebin and falling in love with him in the process.  Can they save the world from the evil P.L.O.T. Device?

Too much plotting of a James Bond-like story of world domination sinks this comedy.  Too much of the police material is sternly serious, especially Chief Davis (CCH Pounder), while the earnest Drebin is a walking, nonsense-talking knucklehead of a detective.  The chemistry between Neeson and Anderson is nice, yet even that feels forced within the context of the tightly constricted plot.  Only once does the comedy ever feel genuinely organic (and funny) and that involves “fish people.”  That scene truly cracked me up.

Since the original Naked Gun is a beloved classic it seems pointless to remake it, even though it uses the sons of the original characters.  It isn’t a failure, and it has some kooky moments, not to mention a terrific owl, yet it was entirely unnecessary.  And yet, because it was fairly successful, more may follow.  ☆ ☆.  25 January 2026.