‘The naked gun’ review

By Nadia Dalimonte

Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson in The Naked Gun © 2025 Paramount Pictures

​​Laugh-a-minute comedies are rare gems these days, and Akiya Schaffer’s The Naked Gun shines as one of the rarest of them all, joining the original Police Squad crew. This legacy sequel pays homage to the classic Leslie Nielsen pictures, harkens back to the goofy mind of Mel Brooks, evokes major 90s nostalgia, and stands out with a contemporary spin. It’s been decades since a film has elicited so much hysterics - not just chuckles, but tears of laughter - and it’s a soothing balm for the soul. With the perfect casting of Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, whose on-screen chemistry sizzles in every frame, The Naked Gun is a comedy goldmine. From deadpan deliveries and silly visuals to an absurdist courtship montage, the slapstick humour brings much-needed spoof energy back onto our screens.

The story opens with a pre-credits bank robbery sequence that mirrors the tensity of any decent bank robbery in any film. It’s a fitting start for The Naked Gun, as this is a film that takes silliness seriously and commits to the bit with a deadpan slant. The jokes are marvellously crafted, the visual gags are appropriately goofy, and the wordplay inspires straightforward delivery. The opening sequence parodies the tone of films like The Dark Knight (pulling from the robbery heist) and the Mission: Impossible franchise (using a silly mask reveal to introduce Neeson). Driving the plot here is a piece of machinery literally called a P.L.O.T. Device. It’s sought after by tech billionaire Richard Cane (Danny Huston) to set humanity back by manually turning everyone into angry bots who want to fight one another. 

Only one man can save the world from evil billionaires - the world’s silliest crime fighter, Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr. (Neeson). He’s the fumbling son of, you guessed it, the original detective made famous by Nielsen’s genius performance. When Drebin Jr. and his partner, Captain Ed Hocken Jr. (a scene stealing Paul Walter Hauser), stumble onto a car crash, the crime scene reveals a connection to Cane’s evil billionaire scheme. Meanwhile, a side plot introduces the luminous Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), a true-crime novelist who seeks Drebin Jr.’s help in finding her brother’s murderer. The moment Neeson and Anderson first appear on screen together, a new Hollywood power couple is born. They complement each other with a warm, endearing energy and ride the wavelength of poker-faced comedic timing. Anderson has several standout moments including a jazzy stage number, a clever bit about a detective’s chair, and an Austin Powers-style shadow innuendo.

Neeson’s capacity for deadpan comedy can be traced back to the 2011 British mockumentary Life’s Too Short, created and written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Neeson plays himself in a cameo appearance that involves him demanding to do improvisational comedy alongside Gervais, Merchant, and Warwick Davis (Davis plays a fictional version of himself as the series protagonist). It would come as no surprise if Neeson’s cameo had anything to do with getting cast in The Naked Gun, as he nails the serious aloofness that makes for an entertaining spoof. The film makes it clear that Neeson is no Nielsen; there’s a bit of dialogue about the character wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps, but to be unique at the same time, and Neeson delivers on both tall orders. He may not possess the utter cluelessness of not even knowing a gag is happening in the first place, a magical quality of Nielsen’s work. But Neeson, who brilliantly plays the role straight, brings a slant of intensity that makes the character feel like his own iteration. 

Director and co-writer Akiva Schaffer (the filmmaker behind Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and the iconic Lonely Island music videos) strikes a fun balance between acknowledging how ditzy the humour is, and letting that humour breathe without it feeling overtly self-aware or forced. Not every single joke lands. Some, notably a car sequence involving sandwiches and bowel movements, are stretched far too thin. But with several jokes on offer, plus hidden gems in the background that will resurface upon re-watches, the comedy is fiercely consistent.

The film finds a sweet spot between recurring jokes and throwaways; a standout repeat gag involves a revolving handout of coffee cups given to Neeson and Hauser at increasingly absurd times. Additionally, the dialogue showcases an amusing range from quick wordplay (“UCLA?” “I see it every day. I live here.”) to impassioned pleas about how good The Black Eyed Peas (especially Fergie) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are. Co-written by Schaffer, Dan Gregor, and Doug Mand, the screenplay shows a strong attention to detail in the foreground and background; clever visual gags, genre-bending set pieces, and an absolutely hilarious romantic montage-turned-evil Jack Frost horror sequence.

The 80s and 90s nostalgia of The Naked Gun — perfectly distilled into a needle drop of Starship’s Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now and a random cameo by the animated paperclip guide named Clippy (created by Microsoft Office 97) — thankfully isn’t heavily relied upon. The film leans into several modern critiques, whether playing on the dangers of technology or making clowns out of toxic masculinity. But there’s also just enough nostalgic energy to evoke a yearning for more dumb comedies that take the craft seriously and fully embrace silliness. The Naked Gun is the exact dose of goofiness the genre needs more of. While the film excels as a legacy sequel, the biggest lesson studios ought to take from its success is to give original comedies the green light. We’ve gotten a few gems in film and television this year, from Lawrence Lamont’s One of Them Days to Apple TV+’s The Studio. The Naked Gun serves as a reminder that its very brilliant existence comes from an original creation.