The Naked Gun (2025)

The Naked Gun (2025)

 

6/10

 

Starring

Liam Neeson

Pamela Anderson

Paul Walter Hauser

 

Directed by Akiva Schaffer

 

One of the things I liked about the movie that actually made me laugh out loud was when the new Frank Drebin (Liam Neeson) and the new Ed (Paul Hauser) knelt before the picture of the old Frank and Ed, and you then discover that this movie is not a remake, but it accepts the death of Leslie Nielsen and this movie is about Frank and Ed Junior.

The comedy works here. The whole coffee infatuation in the movie was funny, the dialogue was amazing, and the inner voice of Frank says some of the most off-putting things that make you raise an eyebrow.

The chemistry between Neeson and Anderson’s characters is not just something critics say for fun, it is actually amazing. The way they played off each other on screen had me amazed.

A lot of things work in this movie. That is what made seeing it fun and made it actually rewatchable.

The plot follows Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. of the Police Squad, a role his father once held. Frank ruled a current accident as suicide until he was approached by the deceased’s sister, Beth (Anderson), who convinced him to look deeper into the case, insisting her brother would never kill himself.

The investigation led to us meeting the powerful tech mogul the deceased worked for. As expected from the franchise, the film has a barrage of slapstick chaos, sight gags, and rapid-fire comedic one-liners, all revolving around the mysterious P.L.O.T. Device. The acronym stands for “Primordial Law of Toughness”, a dangerous gadget capable of turning ordinary people into violent, primal versions of themselves.

The movie starts with the stealing of this gadget, and how the gadget, the tech mogul, and everything else fit together is one thing we and Frank have to resolve while we watch this movie.

In the end, I am seeing that the movie is not making waves at the box office. I guess there is a particular audience for this kind of comedy, and such people would rather stream it than sit in the cinema to see it. Also, the movie had this midway lull where its pace seemed to drop before picking up again. Some of the jokes were excessive and seemed forced, so not all of them landed as they should.

Then there is the comparison of Neeson’s acting to Nielsen’s. Nielsen had the absolute mastery of deadpan silliness in a way that just amazes you. Now Liam Neeson is not blessed with such calibre, so we had to deal with his gravel looks and acting to play off the needed deadpan delivery for the character of Frank Drebin. This, for me, can be seen as a flaw, but it depends on how you look at it.

I recommend you see this movie because of the way the plot unfolds and the way the comedy is well twisted in.