The Naked Gun Review: Liam Neeson And Pamela Anderson’s Legacyquel Saves Six Orphans, L.A., And Theatrical Comedy

I believe someone once said that legacyquels and comedies share a common thread: they’re more difficult to manage than a child in a sugar rush. The moment the Seth MacFarlane-produced version of The Naked Gun was announced, that sort of “wisdom” was probably ringing in people’s ears. To try and recapture the manic energy of Leslie Nielsen and the Police Squad! legacy is something many – even the architects that built the franchise – have tried and failed at over the years.

Sometimes conventional wisdom needs to be heeded, and sometimes it needs to step aside and let Liam Neeson eat five chili dogs in the name of fighting crime, no matter the consequences. Well, this is definitely a time where that sort of “wisdom” can stuff it, as The Naked Gun is a pure and beautiful return to form – just over 30 years since the franchise last wore its badge at a theater near you.

You can’t really “spoil” a Naked Gun movie because the plot is pretty much the same thing for most of the films. Cop (Liam Neeson) meets Girl (Pamela Anderson), Cop meets Villain (Danny Huston), Villain has a plan that’s fishy enough for Cop to investigate, but covert enough to make the suspicious Cop look like a loose cannon.

Writers Dan Gregor & Doug Mand, along with co-writer/director Akiva Schaffer, don’t reinvent the wheel with their spin on the Zuckers-Abrahams-Zucker school of schtick. However, this isn’t your father’s Naked Gun (put that back where you found it!) While the silliness and slapstick are still present, this series has evolved with the times – which helps it stick the landing in delivering something familiar enough to watch with your parents but new enough to enjoy with your friends.

The “new version” of The Naked Gun knows when to update and when to stick to the classics.

Rebooting The Naked Gun would have been a fool’s errand, though admittedly an equally effective opportunity to sending up modern Hollywood. A legacyquel means that the story doesn’t need to compete or one-up its classic predecessors, but rather it just needs to update the humor for today’s sensibilities. That means the raunchy is toned down (a bit), and the off-color humor is refocused into other areas you can safely laugh along with at an NPR-sponsored screening.

More important than that is the fact that Liam Neeson’s turn at bat doesn’t forget to pack in jokes where other parodies may fear to tread: in the sight gags. The legacy trilogy and its six-episode source material (the short-lived TV series Police Squad!), were always chock full of offbeat background action, visual inconsistencies, and end credits packed with crazy jokes. In a slim and trim 85 minute running time, “the new version” packs as much humor as it can into every moment it can find, and it’s never forced.

Even something as typically “simple” as the soundtrack is maximized for chuckles thanks to veteran action composer Lorne Balfe combining touches from his time on films like Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning with the classic noir touches The Naked Gun requires.

There’s even a brand new version of Ira Newborn’s classic Police Squad! theme that enlists musician Gordon Goodwin to help bring its larger than life melody back to play. Considering he did the same for 2008’s Get Smart adaptation, you couldn’t have found better hands to put that baton in.

The Naked Gun stacks the deck with a cast ready for anything, and Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson’s comedic chemistry leads the way.

Comedy, especially that of the parody subgenre, needs an ensemble that believes in the cause from frame one and never breaks. With that criteria in mind, you could say that the cast of The Naked Gun are the most hardened jokesters this side of the camera – which begins with the electric pair that is Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson.

Neeson has been warming up for this gig over time with roles in The LEGO Movie and cameos in Ted 2; as well as studying Leslie Nielsen’s past works rather thoroughly. He doesn’t try to totally channel the stoicism that his predecessor possessed, allowing for a little more silliness to peek through in his Frank Drebin, Jr. It’s the sort of distance that’s needed when trying to execute a vision such as The Naked Gun.

Meanwhile, Pamela Anderson might be the actor that’s considered the “surprising standout” of the cast. I’d partially agree, as anyone who’s followed her career over the years will see that the only thing different with The Naked Gun is that the folks in charge gave her the largest comedy canvas she’s ever painted on here. Consider the woman Bob Ross, as Anderson is up for all of the shenanigans expected of her.

Rounding out this cast of crushers are veteran character actors like Danny Huston and Kevin Durand (who show off villainy that walks that fine line between silly and sinister), Paul Walter Hauser (continuing a run of scene stealing he started this summer with The Fantastic Four: First Steps), and CCH Pounder. The latter's casting is another case of how much this picture trusts its audience, as you’re expected to know her role from The Shield, but she’s not expected to offer a pale imitation of that dramatic piece.

A lean and mean reminder of why parody comedy is so beloved, The Naked Gun aims for big laughs and doesn’t miss.

What most surprised me about The Naked Gun is the fact that all involved were able to resurrect the ZAZ school of rapid fire comedy. The pacing in the dialogue is zippy, pithy, and able to convince you that Liam Neeson and Danny Huston’s riff on the Black Eyed Peas is really talking about high art. On top of the easter eggs, sight gags, and score, the frequency/hit rate on this saga hasn’t lost pace for a second.

The Naked Gun is put together with a love for the original property, a cutting sense of humor about modern times, and an impish smile permanently etched on its face. Comedy is back in theaters, and like a stand up comedian at a bridal shower, it’s as beautiful as it is hilarious.

If there was ever a movie that could convince you a beloved recording star would agree to a residency in an apocalyptic bunker in a cameo that pays off in the end credits stinger, it’s this one. Isn’t that what America, and the world, need right about now? (Outside of world peace, economic stability, and a Nintendo console with a controller doesn't drift right out of the box.)