The Naked Gun
Youve read the ad, now see the movie!
Rating: 8/10
Running Time: 85 minutes
UK Certificate: 15
Lieutenant Frank Drebbin (played, of course, by Leslie Nielsen) first popped up in 1982s little-known but fan-bloody-tastic TV miniseries Police Squad!. The formula wasnt particularly complicated: spoof every old cop show under the sun, load it with sight gags and glaring innuendos, and Roberts your fathers brother youve got yourself a comic masterpiece. This, peeps, is the big-screen version, three times the size of a half-hour episode and very nearly as funny. This is The Naked Gun (or The Nekkid Gun, if you happen to be Justin Timberlake).
Things kick-off in Beirut, where Franks dishing out knuckle sandwiches to various enemies of The American Way (Gorbachev, Arafat, theyre all there). But before long were back in the land of the stars and stripes where, as youd expect, theres big trouble going down. An evil genius by the name of Vincent Ludwig (a bewildered-looking Ricardo Montalban) is behind a dastardly scheme to bump off the Queen (Jeannette Charles, as always) during one of her many flying visits to a Dodgers baseball game (nothing unusual about any of that, is there?).
So, disposable (and not particularly important) storyline in place, its up to our Frank leap to old Queenies rescue before its too late. If youve seen Airplane!, Police Squad!, or any of writer-director David Zuckers other projects, youll know exactly what to expect here. Hang the plot, this is about squeezing as many laughs into an hour-and-a-half as is humanly possible and The Naked Gun delivers.
Look out, while youre at it, for the nice beaver gag which simultaneously manages to be one of the most obvious AND funny gags in movie history. Now THATS writing!
It's Got: O.J. Simpson getting battered senseless on at least five separate occasions.
It Needs: To be seen again and again and again and again. And again.
DVD Extras Disc 1 in The Complete Naked Gun Collection box-set includes just the basics a trailer and a group commentary from David Zucker, co-producer Robert K. Weiss and host Peter Tilden. DVD Extras Rating: 2/10
Summary
The best movie ever made with the words Naked, Gun and The in the title no arguments.