adonis98-743-186503
A rerun of many of the gags from the television series Police Squad! (1982). An Airplane! (1980)-type spoof, this time with the an incompetent Lieutenant Frank Drebin, who always "gets his man". Visual gags come thick and fast, and it's impossible to catch them all with one viewing. The plot: Queen Elizabeth II of England is coming to town, and Vincent Ludwig has plans to assassinate her using a brainwashed baseball player. If you loved movies like Airplane or just Leslie Nielsen in general 'The Nake Gun' movies are definitely for you, full of laughs and just with lots of action, adventure and gags that was enough for me and definitely enough for alot of viewers and just a great film in general. (A+)
Parker Lewis
I saw The Naked Gun before 1994 and even now it is a fine comedy, definitely top class in hilarity. I know, I know, there's the specter of O.J. Simpson, but unless all his scenes should be deleted (would that be breaching the First Amendment perhaps? I'd have to ask a constitutional lawyer), the movie is still a fine comedy. But I can appreciate if this tarnishes the movie.There are so many laugh-out-loud moments, starting from the opening scene where Frank Drebin (Leslie "The Poseidon Adventure" Nielsen) battles the Axis of Evil and then some, even rubbing off the birthmark off Mikhail Gorbachev's head ("I knew it!!!").I heard there may be a reboot of The Naked Gun, and it would be interesting to see who is cast.
ElMaruecan82
(sorry for the lousy title, I needed an opening line)After the classic "Airplane!", the forgettable sequel and the criminally underrated "Top Secret!", Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker strike again after four years of creative gestation, providing what can easily be considered their consummate film. Actually, I can't decide between this and "Top Secret!". However, I do believe it's funnier than "Airplane!" for one simple reason. The disaster parody insisted a little too much on the romantic subplot, without providing funny gags to carry them, it was all the more redundant that the two leads were actually the least interesting characters of the whole film.The obvious scene-stealer in "Airplane!" was Leslie Nielsen and it's only fitting that he finally got to star in a ZAZ film before becoming their mascot, reprising his role as lawman Frank Drebin from the short-lived cult-series "Police Squad" in 1982. And who better than the late-blooming gray-haired actor with his deadpan expression delivering the most hilarious lines, to embody the humor of parody movies, which are movies that pretend to be serious about totally over-the-top and zany situations. Leslie Nielsen portrays the character of Frank Drebin as a no-nonsense guy evolving in a totally bizarre and nonsensical world. He becomes eccentric despite himself, and that's the mistake most comedies make, by having characters acting crazy in the first place.And Frank Drebin becomes a naturally comic actor, where almost each line can stand as a one-liner. Take the hospital scene where he's supposed to comfort his friend's wife, his remembrance of his ex-wife, his monologue à la Dirty Harry or Humphrey Bogart, Nielsen, with an extreme versatility, manages to fit every kind of humor, verbal and visual. And this film is real tribute to his talent, supported by no-less deserving cast, such as Nancy Marchand as the Mayor, his friend Ed Hocken played by George Kennedy and Priscilla Presley as the villain's pretty secretary falling in love with his 'funny face'. Speaking of falling, her entrance is the perfect ice-breaking moment to viewers who wanted to picture her as a glamour model. And in all that nonsense, Montalban does a great job as plays the typical suave and sinister villain.Now, is it necessary to sum up the whole plot? Let's just say that it's all about preventing the assassination of Queen Elizabeth, and that this plot only matters as a vehicle for non-stop gags, that take you from a (slightly) anti-Arab trip into Beirut to the usual staples of cop movies, starting with the unforgettable opening credits sequence, from the hilarious openina vertiginous impersonation of Harold Lloyd with the weirdest thing to hang on, a romantic montage to a climactic confrontation in a baseball stadium and a romantic declaration that make an Arab and a Jewish man have a hug, a gag that kind of redeems the opening scene. Of course, the final scene provokes a superb final sight gag that might console those who have a hard time watching OJ Simpson in such a feel-good film, but let's just accept it as the only element that dates the film..And "The Naked Gun" isn't just a funny film, it's a film that is so daring and so obsessed by its mission to make us laugh that no minute is wasted, each one of them is full of say, one or two gags, and the rest is only quick set-ups. This is not just a watchable but a rewatchable and a re-rewatchable film as the probability to miss some jokes will be high especially if you're busy laughing out loud from the previous gag. It's a movie that, no matter in which mood you appear to be, will put a big, big smile in your face and sometimes, there's no more explanation needed. But I have personal reasons to enjoy this film, more than another.I never really heard about the word "parody" until I was 11 and there was a TV special classic parodies, starting with "The Naked Gun". I didn't really get the difference between that and the usual comedy, not until that scene where poor Nordberg (O.J. Simpson) gets shot by a bunch of criminal, and then endures many other unfortunate accidents such as burning his hand on a stove, putting his arm on a wet paint door, his head falling on a wedding cake or his leg caught in a bear trap. Within a minute, I got the idea, and I remembered I had already seen a few movies with the same comedic zaniness like "Spaceballs" or "Johnny Dangerously". But if anything, it was "The Naked Gun" that introduced me to the parody genre.And till now, I can't believe that this film wasn't introduced in the American Film institute's Top 100 Comedies while other films like "Fargo", "The Graduate" or "Big" are there. That's a parody of listing, if I might say so.
