The Naked Gun (1988)
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The Naked Gun Movie Review
The Naked Gun is a 1988 comedy film directed by David Zucker and starring Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley and George Kennedy. It’s a very good comedy.
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“Just think; next time I shoot someone, I could be arrested“
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Incompetent police Detective Frank Drebin must foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. This movie was a huge box office hit back when it was released, being one of the highest-grossing films of the year. It spawned a trilogy of movies and it’s regarded as one of the best 80s comedies by many. I find it to be deeply flawed, but mostly quite strong. It’s certainly a better and more effective comedy than ‘Airplane!’ – the other Zucker movie that I deem to be quite overrated.
Whereas the former film was a parody of disaster flicks, this one was clearly meant to parody the crime detective shows of the seventies and eighties. Thus, it must have been even more effective for the audiences of the day. But it has universally appealing humor that is mostly quite timeless, so I ended up enjoying it and it did make me chuckle more than a couple of times, though I only laughed out loud once or twice.
Leslie Nielsen stole the show here. He was excellent at deadpan delivery, but he also sold the more physical stunts and gags. The slapstick in the film is reminiscent of Looney Tunes in its manic energy, though I found it to be successful only sporadically. Much more effective was the deadpan dialogue that was witty and quite clever.
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Nielsen was the standout of the movie, so everybody else struggled to keep up with his energy and charisma. But still, this was a solid cast that did deliver fine comedic work. George Kennedy was the funniest of the supporting players and he was quite memorable while Priscilla Presley was surprisingly good in a typically overly sexualized female role that still had sparks of fun banter, though the romance was highly implausible.
Ricardo Montalban was a solid, campy villain and that ridiculous storyline worked for this type of movie. As for O. J. Simpson, he was just there for one running gag repeated throughout. It was pretty funny at first and it became less amusing as it went along.
The Naked Gun is very well edited and paced if you discount that rather unfortunate third act. A bunch of that section worked undeniably, but still I do not care for the sport of baseball, so the fact that the movie was adamant about focusing on it so extensively annoyed me quite a bit.
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With that being said, the rest of the movie flew by and was consistently engaging. The parts with the queen were quite entertaining while those moments with gay jokes also made me chuckle. The movie is surprisingly progressive and not dated at all in its treatment of sex, race and sexuality.
The Naked Gun is a pretty good comedy from the eighties that I preferred over ‘Airplane!’, though the prolonged baseball section in the third act annoyed me quite a bit. The more sophisticated deadpan dialogue was more effective than slapstick for me, but for the most part the jokes here worked and the movie made me chuckle quite often. Leslie Nielsen stole the show with a very charismatic and funny central turn while the supporting players all did a good job themselves. It’s a flawed, but undeniably fun flick.
My Rating – 4
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