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The Sharp, Relentless Silliness of a Recharged Naked Gun

It is the verbal and visual wit of early Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker movies that sets them apart from other comedies or their vast array of imitators. Unlike the spoof films that came after and hit peak levels of obnoxious by the 2000s, the films of ZAZ -specifically Airplane!, Top Secret!, and the first Naked Gun (as well as the short-lived show that birthed it, Police Squad)- had a highly intelligent, absurdist streak behind a lot of their dumb jokes that paired excellently with disciplined deadpan humour. That has never really been replicated, perhaps deemed too much a signature of ZAZ alone. If anything is to try however, it ought to be a reboot of The Naked Gun.
Of course it is something of a double-edged sword for a lega-sequel to attempt that: hedge too close to repetition and it’s hollow mimicry, stray too far and its abandoning the spirit of the original. Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) articulates this openly early on to a picture of his predecessor, hoping that he can be like him and honour his legacy while contradictingly doing his own thing and being not too much of the same -a mouthpiece perhaps for director Akiva Schaffer. The prospect of rebooting this franchise had to be daunting, less because of its particular quality (only that first film is much good) but more because its style of humour and the anchor that was Leslie Nielsen were felt by many to be too distinct and irreplaceable. On the latter count, Schaffer and Neeson would concur, but that doesn’t mean the former can’t be made to work again.
Obviously ignoring the egregious continuity issue of being the original character’s son, Neeson is introduced as this new deadpan detective at Police Squad, a special unit of the LAPD. The murder of an employee at a highly-esteemed tech conglomerate results in Frank investigating the CEO Richard Cane (Danny Huston) and his secret conspiracy, with the aid of the victim’s sister, Beth (Pamela Anderson) -with whom he forms a romance over the course of their snooping. And through all of it are a series of non-sequitur gags, slapstick action, and wordplay.
This plot sticks very closely to the beats of the original movie, including an innocent early visit with the villain, a mid-film romantic culmination giving way to a silly montage set to a pop song, and a climax at least in part set at a sporting event. Beyond this structure, the movie also brings back the familiar musical motifs (though not the opening theme) and the film noir-style voiceover narration -introduced again in classic fashion after the title through Drebin driving around town. There is also occasionally a repeated joke, such as Beth walking right into a pole as Drebin’s inner monologue describes her profound sexiness. Reusing jokes though is not unfamiliar territory for this series, the previous movies made ample use of recycling bits from the show. And it is done here with relative restraint, while those other elements in the flourishes feel like simply trademarks that Schaffer is happy to bring back. And while the story is plainly unoriginal, both in its base pattern and its updated context, the story has never been what’s important about these kind of movies.
Understanding what is, is where the movie unexpectedly succeeds. True to the old ZAZ formula, The Naked Gun is packed with jokes and loosely relevant sketches through its entire runtime. And most of them are pretty damn funny, and entirely coherent with that ‘anything goes’ absurdist style of humour just adapted for a modern era. Indeed, it does still work wonders. Where other comedies have tried to get by on snarkiness or improvised deliveries, The Naked Gun finds gold in reliables like a running gag of Drebin and Captain Ed Hocken (Paul Walter Hauser) being handed cups of coffee before throwing them away, or Drebin and Beth engaged in something wholly innocent that through a curtain looks extremely sexual, or Drebin taking a subtle bathroom break during a heightened confrontation while a surprise cameo fills in. And if these don’t resonate, there are three or four more in rapid succession around the corner. What keeps the movie fresh is simply its cornucopia of dumb jokes of all varieties. Whether it is in puns (such as time served for ‘man’s laughter’), deadpan literalism -a lot of jokes from the “don’t call me Shirley” school, or finely tuned comic exchanges -my favourite might be the one Drebin has with a bartender. Additionally there are plenty of great visual gags -which truly felt like a lost art form- and a healthy dose of the surreal. The montage sequence  at the mid-point makes for a very inspired bit of deranged lunacy.
A lot of this comedy depends at least in part on a finesse of delivery, and while I had my doubts in his ability to really pull it off, Neeson proves an excellent fit. Part of what made Leslie Nielsen’s performance in Airplane! (and subsequently The Naked Gun) so effective was that it was at least in part consciously lampooning the tenor of his serious performances in movies like Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure. Likewise, Neeson’s performance here is an earnest send-up of a lot of his late career action movie roles -delivering his goofball lines in the same gravelly cadence that has been his cliché ever since Taken. And it’s pretty fun. Neeson is not as expressive as Nielsen when it comes to the physical gags, but he makes up for it with the earnestness of his commitment. Outdoing him in this department though is Anderson, who is perfectly comfortable both honing in on a certain sultry attitude (a former staple of hers that she also enjoys sending up) while wholeheartedly embracing the outrageous, including a sequence where she spontaneously scat sings to a nightclub as a distraction. The role of the love interest in these movies (previously filled by Priscilla Presley) is to be at least mildly a foil for Drebin, yet Anderson’s Beth goes virtually toe to toe, albeit to a slightly different degree of humour that compliments his nicely. It actually makes for a very sweet and organic chemistry.
There aren’t any lulls in the movie at all -never does it lose its momentum or energy even where a joke goes wrong (there is a Buffy bit that lasts a touch too long). Even the scenes of plot or villain machinations have a little fun to them -it’s the most Huston has enjoyed a performance in a long time. It is rare to see a live-action comedy movie in the 2020s that isn’t attached to some other expensive genre brand (and this one of course was only allowed to be made because of its franchise connection), let alone a comedy that is so irreverent as this. It is not one-note in its humour -there is at least a handful of jokes in here for anyone. And it manages to have its cake and eat it in terms of standing out from while paying homage to its nostalgia -a nostalgia perhaps less about the Naked Gun series and more about this format of unabashedly silly, relentlessly gag-focused comedy movies themselves. As so much laughter in the theatre confirmed, it has been missed.

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