It’s a brave move, to revive the “Naked Gun” movies, said Danny Leigh in the Financial Times. Released between 1988 and 1994, the crime spoofs were a showcase for the genius of the late Leslie Nielsen, whose “deadpan brilliance” as the bumbling LAPD detective Frank Drebin (a man with “a heart of gold and a brain of wood”) helped turn them into classics of the genre. Yet against all expectations, this belated sequel is a worthy successor – “a dumb comedy of the expert kind”.
Liam Neeson takes the role of Drebin’s son, Frank Junior, who has followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the same elite squad. He is younger than his dad was in the original trilogy, yet is also a “relic in changing times. ‘Since when do cops have to follow the law,’ he asks, sincerely baffled.”
The plot involves an “Elon Musk-style villain” (Danny Huston) bent on world domination, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator – but it is not really relevant: this is a film which exists solely to make its audience laugh. Some of the gags may not land, but never mind, because another will be along in 15 seconds. Admittedly, the third act drags a bit, and is “over-reliant on slapstick”, but the film is only 75 minutes, so you’ll not be squirming in your seat.
This is one of the stupidest films you’ll ever see, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph – and I loved it. Playing on his hard-man persona, Neeson delivers his lines “with a gravelly matter-of-factness that only compounds” their lunacy, and he has an easy on-screen chemistry with his love interest, “winningly played by a game-for-anything” Pamela Anderson, which will do nothing to quash rumours of an off-screen romance. If you have a taste for this kind of humour, you’ll not stop laughing until the credits have rolled.
Liam Neeson shows off his comedy chops in this reboot of Leslie Nielsen’s crime spoof
