{"id":12696,"date":"2025-08-02T17:05:49","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T21:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12696"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:25:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T19:25:37","slug":"the-naked-gun-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/08\/02\/the-naked-gun-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"The Naked Gun (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Naked Gun<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (crude\/sexual material, violence\/bloody images, brief partial nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Akiva Schaffer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Akiva Schaffer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Lorne Balfe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Brandon Trost\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 1, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, Liza Koshy, Eddy Yu, Moses Jones.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0I expected \u201cthe new version\u201d of The Naked Gun<\/strong> to be terrible. The trailer did nothing for me although I did chuckle at the OJ Simpson diss. I had terrifying visions of it being like the Vacation sequel\/reboot from ten years ago, unfunny to the extreme and gross to the max. I wouldn\u2019t put it past some young filmmaker to f*** it up like that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Thankfully, that\u2019s not the case with The Naked Gun<\/strong>. It\u2019s not terrible. It\u2019s not all that good either. Simply put, it\u2019s not as funny as it thinks it is. Theoretically, a lot of it should be funny. Director Akiva Schaffer (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping) follows the same basic formula as the original Naked Gun movies (1988-94). That right there is the problem! A lot of it feels too measured, too deliberate. It lacks the rapid-fire spontaneity of the originals from Team ZAZ (Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker). The gags, of which there are many, don\u2019t flow naturally.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The good news is The Naked Gun<\/strong> has a secret weapon, two of them actually. The first is Liam Neeson, the successor to the role previously played by the late Leslie Nielsen (hey, they both have the same initials!). It turns out the Taken star has comedy game. He slays it with his deadpan delivery style in the midst of all the absurdity. He plays it like he\u2019s NOT in on the joke. Even the silliest lines come off as things he might say in one of his action films. That\u2019s the real punchline! The other one is former Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson as the love interest and potential femme fatale. She channels the still-living Priscilla Presley (the sole surviving major cast member of the Naked Gun trilogy) by proving she\u2019s up for anything the screenplay throws at her- e.g. a threesome with a snowman brought to life (don\u2019t ask). If not for these two, The Naked Gun<\/strong> would be a bigger misfire.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot, as usual for these movies, is hardly important. It\u2019s merely a thread connecting the goofy sight gags and one-liners. It has something to do with an evil tech billionaire (Huston, Yellowstone) looking to restart the world via a gadget called \u201cP.L.O.T. Device\u201d (okay, that\u2019s funny) that turns people into crazed lunatics. Liam plays Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. of Police Squad, a veteran cop always trying to fill his father\u2019s shoes. He\u2019s a regular chip off the old block with how he handles the job. He\u2019s this close to be kicked off the force by the Chief (Pounder, Avatar: The Way of Water) for constantly breaking the rules and playing by his own.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Frank Jr. is reassigned to traffic duty after foiling a bank robbery in his own inimitable way. He gives new meaning to disarming a suspect. His first case involves a car crash that initially looks like a suicide. That\u2019s when Pamela, playing the victim\u2019s sister Beth, shows up to set Frank straight. Not only is it murder, it\u2019s somehow connected to the bad tech guy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve already spent too much time talking about something that doesn\u2019t matter in the slightest so let\u2019s move on other things. I\u2019ve already stated that The Naked Gun<\/strong> doesn\u2019t always work. Like with any comedy, it\u2019s hit or miss. This one misses more than it hits, but not for lack of trying. On the contrary, it tries too hard. Schaffer, along with co-writers Dan Gregor (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Doug Mand (Dolittle), desperately wants to recreate the magic of Team ZAZ, the genius madmen behind the greatest movie spoof of all time, 1980\u2019s Airplane! They also created Police Squad!, the short-lived TV series that served as the basis for The Naked Gun films. Sadly, Akiva and his guys aren\u2019t wholly successful.<\/p>\n

\u00a0To be fair, I chuckled a few times throughout The Naked Gun<\/strong>. It\u2019s amusing. It has a few cool cameos including a quickie by Ms. Presley. Yes, series mainstay Weird Al Yankovic shows up again, but not until the post-credits scene. And speaking of the credits, there are a few hidden gags among the long list of names and job titles. Some of The Naked Gun<\/strong> is crude. There\u2019s a series of vulgar shadow gags out of Austin Powers. I\u2019m glad Akiva largely avoids gross humor save for one line about a woman\u2019s bottom and a bit involving Frank\u2019s reaction to chili dogs. It\u2019s mostly silly. Pamela does a scat-jazz number. Frank gets into a lot of slapstick fights. But like I said, it\u2019s all too measured to be hilarious.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m not sure if I can recommend The Naked Gun<\/strong>, but I can say it\u2019s not one to avoid. Like I said, it\u2019s amusing. It\u2019s generally good-natured as opposed to mean-spirited. It has a few sweet callbacks to the original. It\u2019s just not the same as the OG despite all attempts to be the same. It could have much better, but it also could have been much worse. Keep your expectations low.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Naked Gun (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (crude\/sexual material, violence\/bloody images, brief partial nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Akiva Schaffer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Akiva Schaffer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Lorne Balfe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Brandon Trost\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 1, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, Liza […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-Naked-Gun-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C917&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12699,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12696\/revisions\/12699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}