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The Naked Gun (2025)

The Naked Gun is a much loved comedy which is a recognisable IP so it was inevitable that we were going to get a remake. I liked the first one and probably saw the other two many many years ago but I never had an emotional connection to them. The idea of Liam Neeson playing a comedy role works for me. He was funny in Ted 2 although he was only in it briefly but he has done other comedy shows and films.

When the first trailer came out I enjoyed it because of the OJ Simpson joke but when the second trailer came out I was less confident because it seems like the jokes were trying too hard compared to the ease that the original ones were pulled off. Sadly that proved to be the case. The film starts off with a bank robber and someone stealing a literal plot device. Neeson plays Drebin Jr and Drebin is trying to find what happened to a guy who died in a car accident. Paul Walter Hauser plays Hocken Jr and CCH Pounder is their boss trying to keep them under control. Danny Huston plays Richard Cane who is an Elon musk type person wanting to repopulate the earth.he seems to know what kind of film he is in and plays it perfectly. Pamela Anderson is the Priscilla Presley of this film. She’s fine although when she is doing the ‘funny’ singing  it didn't come across that way and just became frustratingly bad.

The biggest issue for this film is that the jokes seem out of place. As much as I don't like comparing this film to the original trilogy I have to because in the originals the jokes seemed effortless and felt like care was taken in crafting them into a scene that felt organic and natural. In this film they felt like the least amount of effort was used to insert the jokes. I did chuckle a couple of times but given that Seth MacFarlane was involved then even when you compare it to his other stuff it seems like they were over compensating for something. Hauser seems pushed to the side which begs the question why you bother to hire him if he’s just going to be used so little.

The snowman bit was the funniest part of the entire film. This felt completely out of place but I did find myself enjoying what was on screen and made me forget about how unfunny this film was. Sadly that part of the film only lasted a few minutes and we were back to the main plot of the film. 

Another reason why this film doesn't work is that it's a throwback to a type of film that most cinema going audiences won't be familiar with. They might know The Naked Gun but there is a reason there hasn't been a Naked Gun film for over 30 years. 

Leslie Nielsen made the jokes seem effortless and the jokes were subtle. He played it like he didnt know there was a joke or he was involved in the joke when obviously did. That was a skill that was under-appreciated for a long time but this film is the opposite, if Neeson took the film a bit more seriously then the film would have worked better.

Ultimately The Naked Gun is a big disappointment. Yes there are things that I found funny and it’s hard to dislike Liam Neeson but I think they made this too slapstick for what it needed to be. The film was 90 minutes which is the perfect length for a comedy so it didn’t outstay its welcome but I don’t think the world is crying out for another Naked Gum film.

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