by Tim Gordon
After three decades, The Naked Gun franchise holsters its classic deadpan slapstick and hands the badge over to the next generation, or at least it tries to.
Directed by Akiva Schaffer (Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers), the film casts Liam Neeson as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., stepping into the trench coat once worn by his father, the iconic Frank Drebin (the late, great Leslie Nielsen). The idea of Neeson, known for his gravel-voiced intensity and “particular set of skills,” leading a zany spoof was intriguing on paper. In practice, The Naked Gun struggles to recapture the franchise’s absurd magic.
The setup is simple: Drebin Jr., a bumbling but well-meaning detective, must solve a high-profile murder to prevent his department from shutting down. Along the way, he’s joined by Pamela Anderson as an oddly self-aware femme fatale, Paul Walter Hauser as a doughy but eager partner, Kevin Durand as a cartoonish heavy, and Danny Huston as a shadowy power player. The ingredients are there: a solid cast, a legacy franchise ripe for revival, and a director with a knack for meta-humor, but the execution is uneven at best.
What made the original Naked Gun trilogy, and even its short-lived Police Squad! series, so beloved was the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker (ZAZ) formula: relentless sight gags, shameless wordplay, and Leslie Nielsen’s unflappable straight-man delivery anchoring pure chaos. But the ZAZ team isn’t involved here, and the absence of their manic, gag-a-minute sensibility is deeply felt. Instead of a rapid-fire barrage of clever jokes, the new film leans too often on tired riffs and wink-wink references, hoping nostalgia will carry it through the dead air between punchlines.
Neeson, for his part, commits fully, maybe too fully. He plays Drebin Jr. as if he’s in Taken 4, which creates a strange tonal clash. The straight-man role is supposed to make the comedy land harder, but here it often just feels stiff. The few moments where he loosens up, leaning into physical comedy or delivering an absurd line with stone-faced sincerity, hint at what this revival could have been if the script had more energy.
The supporting cast adds some spark: Paul Walter Hauser steals scenes with his timing, Pamela Anderson pokes fun at her own image, and Kevin Durand and Danny Huston bring a mix of menace and goofiness as the film’s villains. And here’s an unexpected twist: the chemistry between Neeson and Anderson isn’t just surprisingly great on screen; it reportedly blossomed into a real-life romance after filming wrapped. At least someone got a happy ending out of this movie.
The bigger issue is timing. The original Naked Gun films thrived in a cultural moment when spoofs could make everyday life and rigid institutions like the police hilariously ridiculous. In 2025, reality itself feels like a satire, and the film struggles to find anything to lampoon that isn’t already absurd in the headlines. That challenge isn’t insurmountable. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar proved you can still do surreal, outlandish comedy, but The Naked Gun doesn’t aim high enough.
By the time we get to the “big showdown,” involving a mishmash of slapstick, half-hearted gags, and a finale that plays like a live-action cartoon, the film has already worn out its welcome. The jokes that do land are a reminder of how much we want this franchise to work again. Unfortunately, most of them don’t.
Liam Neeson may have “a certain set of skills,” but broad parody isn’t one of them. The Naked Gun wanted to be a triumphant return for one of cinema’s greatest spoof franchises. Instead, it’s a wobbly attempt that misses the bullseye, leaving us longing for the sharp wit of the ZAZ era.
Grade: C-