Naked Gun 3 (1994)
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Naked Gun 3 Movie Review
Naked Gun 3 is a 1994 comedy film directed by Peter Segal and starring Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley. It’s a pretty solid, underrated sequel.
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“Like a blind man at an orgy,
I was going to have to feel things out“
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Lt. Frank Drebin, a bumbling investigator, is called back from retirement to apprehend a terrorist who has threatened to bomb the Academy Awards ceremony. This was the final film in the original Naked Gun trilogy and it received pretty weak reviews. In actuality, though obviously inferior to its predecessors, it’s still a pretty fun, perfectly solid comedy in its own right.
This is one of those films that feature a terrific opening and a stellar ending, but the middle part is quite rough. That entire mid section did not feature as many laughs as I would have liked. It was uneven, weakly plotted and featuring scenarios that ranged from forgettable to only mildly amusing.
But that beginning was very memorable and quite epic in its set pieces and slapstick. It started the film on a very strong note. The movie also ended with a bang. They lampooned the Oscars gloriously – that Best Actress slate containing roles of women suffering through illness and war was absolutely hilarious because it was so true. The chaos that erupted with the envelope was so much fun and I wished that the rest of the film were as strong.
Naked Gun 3 has strong comedic performances as expected. Leslie Nielsen is terrific in the main role and his comedic timing is top-notch. Priscilla Presley was wonderful once again, though the two did not get as much shared screen time as before.
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Others were pretty much sidelined in favor of new characters that were fine albeit not great – Anna Nicole Smith fared best in such an amusingly over-the-top bombshell role. The plot is as dumb as ever and the jokes were wildly uneven, but those gags that worked were undeniably great.
Naked Gun 3 is inferior to its predecessors, but not by a lot. It’s an underrated sequel that did have a forgettable, subpar middle section, but that opening was quite strong and the ending was glorious as they lampooned the Academy Awards hilariously. It’s a wildly uneven movie, but one that worked more often than not. It also benefited from strong comedic performances across the board with Leslie Nielsen stealing the show per usual.
My Rating – 3.5
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