Akiva Schaffer (Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers) directs and co-writes this fourth installment of the Naked Gun franchise. Following in the footsteps of his father, Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) must solve a murder to prevent Police Squad from shutting down. (85 min.)
Glen Sight gags, slapstick, puns, double entendre, equivocation—The Naked Gun throws it all at the wall, and a lot of it sticks. I laughed out loud on several occasions. Other moments fell flat. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen a lot of the film’s jokes already. These kinds of spoof movies had their heyday in the ’80s and ’90s with films like Airplane! (1980), Loaded Weapon (1993), Hot Shots! (1991), Top Secret! (1984), and Dragnet (1987). This one’s pretty good, and it’s a nice deviation from summer’s relentless superhero fare, but whether or not you’ll like it depends entirely on your personality and mood. It’s pretty ridiculous. Neeson is leaning all the way on his tough-guy persona, and he’s willing for the joke to be on him.
Anna Admittedly, I don’t remember ever seeing the 1988 version of this film, but I have seen enough of it in clips to know it probably isn’t for me. While I don’t have the original to compare it to, watching this updated version did nothing but solidify that hunch. Sure, there are chuckles. It’s so wildly silly I couldn’t help but let out a giggle here or there—but it always was accompanied by some serious groaning. Don’t get me wrong—I’ll watch Neeson in anything, and Pam Anderson is an absolute vision. In fact, if you haven’t watched Pamela: A Love Story, go do that; it’s fabulous. When my favorite thing about a film is that it’s mercifully short, that doesn’t bode well for my review, and with The Naked Gun, I glanced at my watch after an hour and thought, “There’s another third of this left?” It just isn’t the movie for me, but if slapstick and pun play is what tickles you, go forth and enjoy.
Glen You’ve got to admit the cast is stellar. Anderson is amazing as Beth, a devoted sister willing to put herself in harm’s way to find her brother’s killer. Danny Huston stars as tech mastermind Richard Cane, a sort of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos hybrid. He makes Cane truly despicable. Paul Walter Hauser plays Ed Hocken Jr., the son of Capt. Ed Hocken from the original. Cane has a devilish plan to reset the world and become its master and only Frank Drebin Jr. can stop him. There are some running sight gags. Drebin and Hocken are perpetually drinking coffee out of paper cups and perpetually being handed new ones. Some of it gets repetitive. But the film’s got a 90 percent critics score, and a 79 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, so it’s clearly connecting with viewers. Matinee-worthy in my book.
Anna Some of the running gags hit better than others, and you’re right—this cast is pretty hard to beat. Obviously with scores like that I can acknowledge that I may be the outsider here, and I’m sure my lack of connection to the first film doesn’t help either. I do like films like Airplane! to a certain point, so maybe this new version just isn’t hitting the nostalgia button in me like it is in others. If you like your laughs to involve eye rolls and groans, sure, see it as a matinee. For my money, I’d wait for this to hit a streaming service. Either way, Anderson and Neeson are fun to watch, and there’s nothing wrong with a film that aims for just plain silliness. Δ
Arts Editor Glen Starkey and freelancer Anna Starkey write Split Screen. Comment at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Education Today 2025.