“It says here you did twenty years of man’s laughter. Must have been quite the joke.”

Justin’s rating: So many thrown coffee cups

Justin’s review: We all know that Hollywood isn’t interested in comedies these days, but let me ask you: When’s the last time a spoof got a theatrical release? These ultra-silly parodies were all over the place from the mid-80s to the mid-2000s, but that well’s dried up considerably.

I actually did some research here. Scary Movie V came out in 2013. A Haunted House 2 and They Came Together in 2014. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer ended their reign of terror (thank God) with Superfast! in 2015. Fifty Shades of Black and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping emerged in 2016. And that was kind of it.

But the spoof may be on the way back after a decade of almost complete non-existence. There’s another Scary Movie sequel in the works, Spaceballs 2 is underway, Fackham Hall and Spinal Tap II came out last year, and — oh yeah — the Naked Gun series came back in a big way with a full-throated sequel in 2025.

To see this actually land in the theaters, connect back to the classic Leslie Neilsen trilogy, and star Taken’s Liam Neeson does my heart all kinds of good. Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr., a guy who’s every bit as competent, incompetent, and voiceover-happy as his old man. He’s partnered with Ed Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser) and facing shifting trends at Police Squad.

A case involving a stolen P.L.O.T. Device and a killed tech guru sends Drebin and company into a conspiracy spiral to drive every person in the world insane. Along the way, he encounters Pamela Anderson playing Beth, the sister of a murdered man, who spurs Drebin on to find the truth.*

There’s also this loose theme of the old ways resisting the new ones (especially technology), but don’t expect serious film classes to analyze it. Instead, let us focus on elderly billionaires getting excited about crab people, a magical snowman who turns murderous, and a self-driving car that goes amok. That’s where we will find our zen.

What can I say? This pulls from every part of the spoof playbook, and I am not complaining. Sight gags galore, silly slapstick, meandering narration, atrocious analogies, jokes that go on and on, a penchant for literalism, and a main character played by an actor who’s not normally known for comedy, which makes it even funnier.

You know what’s the best part? Unlike so many of the spoof movies of the 2000s, The Naked Gun isn’t a lazy quilt of pop culture references. It’s a genuine old school parody film like Mom and Pops** used to make with real jokes and actual effort. Writer-director Akiva Schaffer (Hot Rod, Popstar, and the underrated Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers) and producer Seth MacFarlane are among the few comedy soldiers fighting for our right to giggle, and bless their hearts for doing so.

As a result, The Naked Gun had me laughing out loud a whole lot more than I expected. It’s not the best spoof flick I’ve ever seen, but I would say it’s worthy of the “Naked Gun” label and a wonderful dessert in the middle of a comedy desert.

*I’m truly happy to see a woman in her late ’50s getting a major role like this. Miss you on Tool Time, Pamela!

**“Mom and Pops” is what I call Zucker/Abrams/Zucker.

Intermission!

• Today I learned that there was an attempt in 2009 to make a fourth Naked Gun movie with Leslie Neilsen called The Naked Gun: What 4? The Rhythm of Evil, but it fell apart.
• The P.L.O.T. Device
• Drebin taking all those pistols apart like Taken
• Finger guns can be deadly
• “Frank Drebin, Police Squad. The new version.”
• The titles running out of room on the side
• “They wouldn’t sell me freedom fries!” “You arrested the entire staff!”
• “I guess you can’t fight city hall.” “No, it’s a building.”
• The OJ Simpson joke is amazing
• The crane gag made me chuckle
• “There’s always a reason to kill someone. Did he have an obnoxious laugh?”
• Competing voiceovers: “She had the kind of hips you wanted to put a hula-hoop on.”
• PUMPKINS
• “You can still say that word?” “In my club, you can.”
• “THE DUTCHESS!”
• The Hannibal Lecter guy walking out of prison
• “Breastfed until you were 13, you freak.”
• Fish people! Like gills on their necks! Mermen! Crab hands!
• Weird Al Yankovic cameo!
• “She had a butt that seemed to say, ‘Hello, I’m a talking butt.'”
• The sparkling water
• From Bill Cosby’s private estate, don’t drink it
• The “skip ad” joke for the security camera (Muscle Slime!)
• So much food innuendo
• Snow vacation music montage including Spells and Incantations and a living snowman
• Uh oh, snowman is getting angry!
• “I picked up your knife for you!”
• “Like an idiot’s finished jigsaw puzzle, I was being framed.”
• Car balloons, car bees, and a fresh windshield
• CLIPPY
• Does anyone still Tivo in 2025?
• Ha, the Mission Impossible fake-out
• “You hit the part of the brain that regulates farts!”
• The guy tripping over the subtitles
• Frank certainly knows his Sex and the City
• All the people showing up for free beer
• Ed Jr. taking out all the kids
• And all the bad guys being very bad at driving electric motorcycles
• The owl is a sign! Nice callback.
• Dave Bautista standing in for Liam Neeson for a bit there
• The bad guy is… not a good fighter
• “You want to keep fighting?” “What? No! My tummy still hurts a lot!”
• Enya reconciliation time!
• I love that we get the classic Naked Gun theme over the end credits