The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear (1991) Paramount/Action-Comedy RT: 85 minutes Rated PG-13 (sexual humor, brief rear nudity, comic violence, brief strong language) Director: David Zucker Screenplay: David Zucker and Pat Proft Music: Ira Newborn Cinematography: Robert M. Stevens Release date: June 28, 1991 (US) Cast: Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson, Robert Goulet, Richard Griffiths, Jacqueline Brooks, Anthony James, Lloyd Bochner, Tim O’Connor, Peter Mark Richman, Peter Van Norden. Box Office: $86.9M (US)/$192M (World)
Rating: ***
My review of The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear, the sequel to the 1988 spoof that itself was a continuation of the cult TV series Police Squad created by Team ZAZ, will probably be brief. I really don’t have anything to say that I didn’t say about the first movie. It’s not as consistently funny, but such is the nature of sequels. It’s a little overplotted too. It has something to do with a villain trying to derail the President’s new energy policy. It’s a good thing audiences don’t see a Naked Gun movie for the plot. They’re there for the laughs. There’s no shortage of those here.
Like it or not, Lt. Frank Drebin (Nielsen) is back. This time, he’s in Washington D.C. for an important speech about the future of energy in the U.S. The new policy, devised by Dr. Meinheimer (Griffiths, King Ralph), involves switching over to renewable energy (i.e. solar). This angers some important people in the fossil fuel industry. Oil company head Quentin Hapsburg (Goulet, Beetlejuice) plans to switch Meinheimer with a duplicate who will publicly advocate for sticking with fossil fuels. It’s a plan that might have worked if it wasn’t for those meddling cops from Police Squad.
Since we last saw him, Drebin has split from Jane (Presley, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane) after she moved to D.C. to take a job at Meinheimer’s research institute. She’s still broken up about it even though she’s been seeing Hapsburg. The facility falls victim to a bombing. Naturally, Drebin is put on the case. It’s not what you’d call a happy reunion. But never fear, dear readers. They rekindle their relationship after he saves her life from an incompetent assassin sent by Hapsburg. Their sex scene is something else.
David Zucker returns as director (and co-writer with Pat Proft) for The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear. The rest of Team ZAZ, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, serve as executive producers this time. A lot of the main cast from the first movie returns as well- George Kennedy (Airport) and O.J. Simpson (The Towering Inferno) as Captain Ed Hocken and hapless Detective Nordberg respectively. Goulet is a fun addition to the cast. The singer plays a goofball bad guy almost as well as Wayne Newton in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. Nielsen is top-notch as always as bumbling cop Drebin whose incompetence is actually his strong suit. It often allows him to solve cases (by accident, but still).
So it all comes down to this once again. Is The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear funny? Yes, mostly. It’s another collection of corny jokes (one-liners, puns and sight gags) and celebrity cameos including a very funny one from Zsa Zsa Gabor referencing her 1989 altercation with a Beverly Hills cop (no, not Axel Foley). Novelty singer Weird Al Yankovic shows up again, this time as a crazed criminal holding the police station hostage. This time, it’s First Lady Barbara Bush (a lookalike, of course) who takes a beating from Drebin. Also, there’s a humorous nod to a famous scene in E.T. Not every joke lands, but it’s still more hit than miss.
That’s really all there is to say about The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear. It’s a funny movie. It’s almost brilliant in its utter stupidity. It works mainly because the actors play it completely straight even when they’re being goofy. It’s a spoof. You just have to take it for what it is. You either like that kind of movie or you don’t. If you do, you’ll enjoy The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear. If you don’t, watch something else.
