Leslie Nielsen was sheer perfection in 1988’s “The Naked Gun: From The Files of Police Squad!”; if you can believe it, this comedy classic, a total spoof of the detective genre, was one of the films that most influenced Paul Thomas Anderson while making “Inherent Vice.”
Back in February, Paramount Pictures announced a ‘Naked Gun’ reboot, starring Liam Neeson, and set up a July 18, 2025 release date. The original “Naked Gun” movies were created by Jim Abrahams, and brothers David and Jerry Zucker (“Airplane!”). Sadly, these comedic geniuses are not behind this reboot (more on that later).
This ‘Naked Gun’ reboot is being directed by Akiva Schaffer (Lonely Island) and written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand. Schaffer directed “Hot Rod” and “Popstar: Never Stop Stopping.” Schaffer, Gregor and Mand all worked together on 2022’s “Chip n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers.”
“Naked Gun” has just screened on the West Coast, and reactions have been fairly strong. Here’s one of the positive takes:
This ‘Naked Gun’ is perfectly in tone with the original. The funny gags get delivered every other minute — some land really great, others are slight but none feel wasted. the film was a slim and fast, clocking in at 90 minutes, with not too many modern callbacks and a good mix of ‘Austin Powers’ and ‘Family Guy’ humor. Neeson is a great at deadpan, and this role is very deadpan; he’s also perfectly in on the joke at all times, Anderson is also quite amusing and just as much fun. Some of the biggest laughs felt like they came directly from the mind of Lonely Island. Some of the attendees mentioned how it was just as funny, and in the same vein as ‘Popstar’ and ‘Hot Rod.’
Neeson taking on the iconic Nielson role might actually work out here. I can definitely imagine Neeson poking fun at his own action star image. The actor has a rather intense persona in all of his films, barely exuding any sense of humor, that it could be amusingly self-deprecating for him to poke fun at it.
The cast for “Naked Gun” (20250 includes Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, Kevin Durand, Cody Rhodes and Busta Rhymes.
David Zucker, one of the original ‘Naked Gun’ creators, recently spoke out against the reboot by saying that it came as a bit of a shock when Paramount handed the franchise to a different set of creatives. He also expressed skepticism towards any sort of reboot of his beloved franchise, adding that it’s quite difficult to replicate this type of comedy (“don’t try this at home”).
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.