The 'babaw' world of 'The Naked Gun'
When Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles came out in 1974, it was heralded as the start of a new golden age in Hollywood comedy. And when Airplane was released in 1980, it catapulted the team of Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker as the new kings of Hollywood slapstick comedy, heirs apparent to the Brooks brand of humor. This was cemented in 1988 with the spin-off from their TV series Police Squad, their Naked Gun film. It spawned two sequels in 1991 and 1994, and now we have a legacy sequel, directed and written by Akiva Schaffer, and starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson.
For background, Schaffer was part of the comedy music group The Lonely Island, with childhood friends Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone. Together, the three also worked on Saturday Night Live for years, starting in 2005. Schaffer is an old hand at skit comedy, and it serves him well in this film. The Naked Gun is slapstick, it’s sight gags, it’s running jokes, and it’s the obvious riposte magnified to the nth degree, such that you have to surrender and laugh.
If watching with a pliable audience, there’s nothing like riding along, as they react to the blatant disregard for taste, subtlety, or political correctness. It’s ‘old school’ broad humor updated for 2025, and I’m not going to argue with anyone who’s having fun with this shallow brand of humor. It’s shallow and crass for a reason, to be very accessible and ‘babaw’ - and the thing is that it will work for the majority of audiences. I know the advanced screening crowd I watched was so sold on the numerous jokes and innuendos.
As Frank Drebin Jr., we have Liam Neeson, and he’s turned his gruff delivery and stoic charm to playing Frank straight, while delivering the most stupid and corny of lines. As Beth Davenport, there’s Pamela Anderson, and you can count this film as still another chapter of her Hollywood comeback. That there’s a buzz about a real-life relationship between the two can only help the box office prospects for the film.
Richard Cane (Danny Huston) is the villain here. As in movies that offer legacy, there are a host of cameos, including Cody Rhodes, Busta Rhymes, Dave Bautista, Weird Al Yankovic, and even Priscilla Presley. The audience I was watching with were fans of the original series that starred Leslie Nielsen, and Presley - so Neeson’s character is supposed to be the child from their marriage. And trust me, this legacy aspect is shamelessly gutted and exploited for humor.
The opening scene is a bank robbery which Drebin foils, disguised as a schoolgirl. The object of the theft is in a safety box, referred to as the P.L.O.T. Device. If you found that funny, then this movie is made for you. I tried to surrender to it and did get some laughs in the process, but honestly, at some point you did want a little more depth or subtlety - none of which you’re going to find.
Brooks would set up his jokes and play them as part of the narrative, teasing and developing them. Here in the Naked Gun, there’s more of Schaffer taking a shotgun approach, throwing in as many jokes as possible, and hoping enough reach their target. That does work, but it can be exhausting. But in the end, it’s all about just having fun - this film is forgettable, disposable, often tasteless, but it’s also hilarious and a good time.