Mikes Film Talk

The 2025 re-imagining of the original The Naked Gun was a let down. It was a plot stealing bit of pap, lacking the off the wall humour of the first. I wanted to like this one. Any fan of Liam Neeson would love the chance to see him play Frank Drebin Jr. except Neeson is no Nielsen. (See what we did there?)

Now about that stolen plot line. Just hark back to 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service. Samuel Jackson’s megalomaniac character invites a small cadre of the world’s rich to share his bunker. They will be provided frequency blocking devices inserted into their bodies. The rest of the world will react to the violence inducing frequencies in smart phone sim cards of the not 1% folks.

The Naked Gun team steals this one lock, stock and barrel.

The Naked Gun Story

Lt Frank Drebin Jr takes on a megalomaniac trying to kill all the poor people with a violence inducing frequency.

The Cast

Liam Neeson is Frank Drebin Jr.

Pamela Anderson is Beth Davenport.

Paul Walter Hauser is Ed Hocken Jr.

Danny Huston is Richard Cane.

CCH Pounder is Chief Davis.

Kevin Durand is Sig Gustafson.

Let’s Talk Both Naked Guns

The 1988 film; The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! was an atypical comedy offering from the Zucker Bros. Plus Jim Abrahams. It was comedy gold and, like the television show, it proved that Leslie Nielsen was funny. After a career of playing unpleasant bad guys, Nielsen could do comedy almost effortlessly.

Neesen is funny, in his own straight playing of Drebin Jr in The Naked Gun. However, it is the script itself that lets the side down here. While watching this new version of a comedy classic, I didn’t laugh once. The wholesale stealing of Kingsman plot line as well soured me on the rest of the film.

And sadly, they left out a new equivalent of Nordberg, played by the late O J Simpson. Granted the shadow over the deceased actor and football star may have made that seem distasteful. Simpson did embody the character of the accident prone detective fully. Still, the slight nod to the original, featuring a picture of Simpson, was more distasteful.

It Doesn’t Work

It felt like I was being unfair to this new The Naked Gun reboot. Ironically, the original Nielsen vehicle is streaming on Paramount + as well. I decided to watch it and found that; no. I was not being unfair. The first is funnier, in my humble opinion.

Trust me when I say that I wanted to like this new version. It was not to be. Despite Pamela Anderson knocking her role out of the park, the writing let everyone down. This film’s comedy focussed upon the crudity of its jokes instead of sprinkling them delightfull throughout. The sheer idiocy of the people who also brought the world Airplane! is missing here.

The bad puns, the loonacy and the sight gags are sorely missed.

The Verdict

The Naked Gun earns a paltry 3.5 stars. Clearly, I am in the minority here as the film’s world box office shows a stonking win for the studio. *With a budget of $42 million, the film shows a gross of $102,147,396. That is a win full stop.*

The film is streaming on MGM + and Paramount + right now. If you head to Paramount + you can watch the funnier original right after. Do not watch it before, as it might spoil your viewing pleasure.

The Trailer