Naked Gun 2025

In 2023 I wrote blog post examining the Naked Gun films.  At the time a reboot starring Liam Neeson was in the works and in the post I hoped for the best but was a little concerned as I did not want to see a bad version of something I had really enjoyed.  Neeson is a fabulous actor and I’d always believed him completely in roles like the rebellious outlaw Rob Roy or as a man coping with a personal loss by bonding with his stepson in Love Actually along with his many tough guy roles in the wake of Taken.  In comedies I had only seen him spoof his own image in small roles like The Lego Movie or Ted 2.  Ed Helms had been mentioned as a new Drebin and that seemed a better fit given his broad comedic background.  Simon Pegg, a very inventive comedic actor (who has a good relationship with Paramount since he’s been in several Mission Impossible and Star Trek films) occurred to me.  Additionally no one from the original behind the scenes team (ie David Zucker) were going to work on it.  I was unfamiliar with Akiva Shaeffer’s work though I knew Seth MacFarlane was involved.  MacFarlane is a hit or miss brand for me.  I stopped my son from watching Family Guy since while it is funny in spots (I laughed out loud at a gag involving how people are afraid to admit they like Barry Manilow) I found the show has no soul and a lot of the jokes are mean spirited.  The characters are either extremely selfish (Peter), evil (Stevie) or they get walked over by everyone (Peter’s son Chris).  Ted had an original concept and MacFarlane cast himself well as a smarmy teddy bear and it had some funny moments but I have not seen Ted 2 all the way through.

As I get older it is harder for me to really laugh at a movie since laughing comes from getting caught off guard.  For example I enjoyed The Roses due to the commitment of the excellent two leads but I only laughed hard once (when Benedict Cumberbatch’s structure was collapsing behind him during a storm).  The Hangover has many funny moments but my favorite was Ed Helms’ quiet piano song that served as a Greek chorus.  Would Schaeffer, MacFarlane and Neeson be able to tickle my funny bone?  The answer is a resounding yes.  The Naked Gun is the funniest movie I have seen in a long time.

Spoilers below:

Schaeffer and his team have clearly studied the original film and come up with their own version on what makes it work.  The original opened with a lot of America’s adversaries meeting to plot against the U.S. and an-in disguise Frank beats them up.  Schaeffer cranks it up by having Frank foils a bank robbery by pretending to be a harmless little girl.  Frank’s reveal of a Mission Impossible like face mask matches well with the suggestion that that Frank was crouching in the body of someone about two feet shorter.  Neeson and Shaeffer commit to the gag by having Frank use a knife disguised as a lollipop and then having Neeson standing tall still wearing the little girl’s skirt. Neeson, with his vast experience in action films and strong build (he turned 72 during shooting but looks about 15 years younger), is a lot more believable taking out a series of thugs than Nielsen who was in his 60s during the original series and was faking being a tough guy.  But the sight of him in the skirt shows he is here to give the audience a fun time.

The score was done by Loren Balfe who worked on Mission Impossibles Fallout and Dead Reckoning and interesting he comes up with a similar score here, though he does occasionally borrow from Ira Newborn’s lighter Naked Gun theme.  The sets and the lighting are a little darker than the original films.  Schaeffer stated in an interview that he was inspired by the look of Beverly Hills Cop II which used tight shots and had under-lit sets, especially in the police station where there was a lot of internal conflict in that film.

Shaeffer also keeps the original series’ narration (borrowed from many film noirs like Double Indemnity)  though I wonder if it was awkward asking Neeson, whose wife died from a head injury after a fall from skiing, to deliver the line about a “dead cop wife.”  I have always liked Neeson’s voice so it is a pleasure to hear him deliver so many lengthy monologues.  The narration has a nice payoff when he hears the other cops’ inner thoughts fantasizing about Beth.  Neeson’s Frank is just as prone to being an idiot as his dad but he is such a good fighter and is more resourceful in action scenes that he comes across as more competent.  Frank Jr. also hits a lot of people with his car (there is a repeated gag where he hits the same cyclist twice without ever noticing-note, my own son was recently hit by a car while on an e-bike so while fortunately he was not badly hurt, I don’t see this scene as funny anymore)  The recurring bit where the cops continually get handed coffee no matter how much they have drunk in their current cup may have been designed as an opportunity to for Starbucks merchandising but it leads to a moment where Frank is handed one from outside his car while driving it.  The original films had a few surreal moments like that (like Frank wiping his dirty face and hair and suddenly looking perfectly coiffed) and they work when tossed in casually. 

Neeson usually plays characters who are pretty smart and at the top of their fields so it is fun to see him a little wide eyed and confused here.  The scene where he allows himself to be framed for murder should not work but does given Neeson’s frazzled expressions.  The chili dog/body cam sequence elicited my biggest laughs though I could hardly believe given Frank’s physique that’d eaten one much less about six of them.  

I believe we are not supposed to question his age (Neeson would have been about 41 at the time of his character’s birth at the end of the third film) but it is ironic to see him paired with Ed Hocken Jr., played by Paul Walter Hauser who is about 30 years younger.  Hauser does not get as much to do, which is a shame as he has incredible comic instincts and is easily able to sell the response to Frank’s line “you can’t fight City Hall” with “It’s a building” without any sense of snark.  George Kennedy as Ed Sr. always had his moments in the original series so hopefully if there are future movies we will get to see more of them.  

I never saw Baywatch or her famous tape so this is my first real look at Pamela Anderson.  She spoofs the femme fatale character well by combining a husky voice with a twinkle in her eye.  Beth teams up with Frank more than Jane did in the original film and both actors are clearly on the same wavelength in exchanges like when Beth asks Frank about his wife’s passing and Frank speaks to how his wife could have been a potential NFL player.  Anderson also bravely delivers a spoof of a scat jazz song using exaggerated syllables.  If Anderson was nervous in doing so it works as Beth is trying to distract the villain from something Frank is doing.

Danny Huston plays the Elon Musk like bad guy, Richard Cane, whose plot is to turn people back to their wild untamed selves.  The bad guy in a film like this has to be smart, a little dangerous but also able to find the comedy in the situations.  Huston is spot on in moments where he remembers the ridiculous cover name that Beth gave him but a little off when he tries to fight Frank and the film’s attempts to admit this fall a little flat.  CCH Pounder is fun as Drank’s chief (who dresses down Frank in her bedroom right in front of her sleeping husband) and I enjoyed Kevin Durand as Cane’s henchman Gustafson.  

Priscilla Presley appears but it is so brief I wonder why the filmmaker even bothered to bring her in since she has no lines and is just watching one of Frank’s screw ups on TV.  Frank speaks to her on the phone several times but we only hear his side of the conversation so perhaps Presley filmed additional scenes but they were dropped.  Frank Sr.‘s appearance as an owl was the second such representation of a deceased character in a 2025 film (see Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy) and it would work better if the owl were more clumsy.  

The Naked Gun fulfills the mission of reviving the series and did well enough that I hope it leads to more entries though admittedly they might go straight to video.  Neeson certainly has opened up a new career path either way and I hope that if he does more comedic work that he is selective.  ****