Movie Review: The Naked Gun

If anyone had postulated that the star of serious fare such as Schidler’s List (1993) or Taken (2008) would show such a flare for comedy – other than the self-parody present in something like Ted 2 (2015) – they would be worthy of the title of Nostradamus. With The Naked Gun, Liam Neeson reinvents himself as a comedic force to be reckoned with and the film proves to be a more than enjoyable romp from start to finish.

The film follows Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) and his cohorts on Police Squad as they try to solve a murder before the entire police department is shut down. Of course, this is a crime that goes much deeper than the simple murder that starts the investigation. It, naturally, involves a conspiracy of some other sort that a nefarious criminal is behind whom Drebin may, or may not be destined to bring to justice.

Spawned from the short-lived 1982 television series Police Squad, the original “Naked Gun” trilogy – comprising of The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), and Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994) – was driven by the prowess of Leslie Nielsen in the lead role of Frank Drebin. His dead-pan delivery of silliness made the films more of a cultural phenomenon than perhaps they would have been otherwise.

What is remarkable with this reboot is that an actor with the gravitas of Neeson is able to step into the same format that Nielsen did so with such sincerity and earnestness that he appears to have been born to play the role. As Drebin Jr., Neeson allows the comedy to unfold around him as he plays his character as straight as possible. Sure, he is occasionally a bit on the bumbling side (as was his father), but somehow things always seem to play out well for him and there’s a tinge of self-awareness in his portrayal that, from time to time, acknowledges just how fortunate he is to have had things go his way.

Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson in “The Naked Gun.” Photo by Frank Masi – © 2025 PARAMOUNT PICTURES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Director Akiva Schaffer, whose previous credits include a wide variety of projects related to the Saturday Night Live franchise, including the Andy Samberg led features Popstar: Never Stop Stopping (2016) and Hot Rod (2007), does a wonderful job of capturing essence of the series originally helmed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker. This proves remarkably easier given that the script, penned by Schaffer along with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand – who both previously worked with Schaffer on 2022’s Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers – manages to deliver laughs in all the right places as well as mix those same laughs between spoken lines, pratfalls, and other physical comedy.

More than anything else, it is Neeson’s performance that carries the film. His deadpan delivery is on par, if not greater than, Nielsen’s and the film is all the better for (as are Neeson’s costars). As femme fatale Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson) too enjoys a resurgence as she willingly embraces the comedy genre and proves to be a natural as well. Some characters like CCH Pounder’s Chief Davis or Kevin Durand’s Sig Gustafson are played as seriously as they can be amidst the silliness surrounding them, making the situations befalling all the characters even more hilarious.

While The Naked Gun may have some flaws as a reboot, overall, it is a wild and entertaining comedy that may just succeed in redefining the genre its namesake had a hand in creating in the first place.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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