The Naked Gun Review: Liam Neeson’s Funniest Movie Yet

In 2022, I sat down with actor Liam Neeson on Zoom for his action film, Memory. We chatted for a while, and I asked him about what he wanted to do next in his career, hoping he would confirm his return to the Star Wars series. Instead, he told me about his hope of exploring the comedy genre with a yet-to-be-greenlit Naked Gun movie being developed by Seth MacFarlane. Three years later, we have The Naked Gun, a comedy sequel that manages to be so laugh-out-loud hysterical that it would make Leslie Nielsen proud.

This is not your average cop movie. It starts out with your conventional bank robbery, but what happens next is anything but conventional. A little girl walks in with a lollipop. She then pulls off a mask, revealing herself to be Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Neeson), son of the esteemed lieutenant from the originals. He dispatches all the robbers in comical fashion. Director Akiva Schaffer, who co-wrote the movie with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, quickly reestablishes the wacky, irreverent tone of The Naked Gun. This is not a movie concerned with organic, realistic comedy; it’s over-the-top, self-referential, and all logic goes out the window.

Much like the original films, it embraces the hilarity of replacing a human actor with an obvious dummy. This is such a loving return for the Police Squad, with Neeson giving it his all. This is him at his most ridiculous. From 2008, starting with Taken, to 2018, he had a bit of a career reevaluation where he became famous for being the action hero. But in recent years, with less successful movies like The Ice Road, Blacklight, Memory, Retribution, and Absolution, it’s seemed like his action persona has taken a bit of a downturn. The Naked Gun is Neeson reintroducing himself with a pitch perfect comedic performance.

Producer Seth MacFarlane, who has previously worked with Neeson in A Million Ways to Die in the West, two episodes of Family Guy, and a cameo in Ted 2, knew what he was doing with casting Neeson. That moment in Ted 2 where he buys a box of Trix cereal with life-or-death stakes brewing under the surface solidified Neeson’s comic chops. The selling point is that he doesn’t need to change a single thing from his serious action roles. If you give him absurd dialogue and have him say it in his low, menacing register, it becomes the funniest thing in the world.

Neeson made a surprise appearance at my screening of this film as well. He promised no zombies, no superheroes, and no Pedro Pascal, and while he was exiting, he leaned towards my row and said, “You’d better laugh,” in his signature growl. He’s splendid in this movie because for the most part, he’s not acting like he’s in a comedy. Many of the best comic actors act generally unaware they’re in a comedy, and The Naked Gun is no exception. His deadpan delivery and comic timing are on point. It helps that the writers do such a great job of not only matching The Naked Gun’s trademark literal humor, but building upon it.

We first saw Neeson play a hilarious cop in The LEGO Movie, but this movie allows him to play it in live-action. And much like Nielsen, he spends most of the movie oblivious to the insane things going on around him (many of which he’s responsible for), and we also get brief glimpses of a more deliberate humorous performance. Speaking of late-career revelations, Pamela Anderson is having her moment. The former Baywatch star had a brief stint on Broadway in Chicago in 2022, where I happened to walk past her right around the time I interviewed Neeson. She has since given an exceptional dramatic performance in 2024’s The Last Showgirl, and she’s now embracing humor in a way we saw bits of in Scary Movie 3 and Superhero Movie, which both also starred Nielsen.

Neeson and Anderson work quite well as a pair, and it’s touching that their work together in this film has spawned a real-life romance. Their comic chemistry is wonderful, especially during a romantic montage between their characters. We also have Paul Walter Hauser, who very recently showed some of his comedic chops in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, as Captain Ed Hocken Jr. He gets some very funny moments too, as does everyone who shows up in this movie that genuinely seemed like a blast to make. Danny Huston, who has played his share of villains before, gets to do it again here in a more ridiculous fashion.

As for the story, it’s nothing special. We have our world-ending stakes and a device that feels very reminiscent of the plot device from Kingsman: The Secret Service. It’s not as concerned with a strong narrative as it is throwing gag after gag at you. And it works pretty well, all things considered. When it comes to comedy sequels, the recent Happy Gilmore 2 did a lot wrong. It relied too heavily on celebrity cameos and callbacks to the original for laughs, and it felt tedious at nearly two hours long. The Naked Gun, at a breezy 85 minutes with credits, has the cameos and the callbacks, but 95% of the gags in this movie are original.

The references are smart, and you don’t need to watch the originals to have fun with this movie. There’s a cameo that happens so quick that it didn’t feel like my audience registered it or laughed at it, so this moment should have been longer. But there are also some deep cuts. We have a reference to a scene from Mission: Impossible – Fallout. This scene gets another humorous layer because Lorne Balfe, who scored Fallout, also composed the music for The Naked Gun, and he gets to tribute his own music in this scene. And just when you think this particular scene can’t get funnier, it keeps adding to it.

The Naked Gun is one of the best comedy sequels of all time, and it’s a legacy sequel done right, best enjoyed with a chili dog and a cup of coffee.

SCORE: 8/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.

Source: Comingsoon.net