The Naked Gun Review

By: Justin Hopkins

Thanks to how the last few months have gone, I haven’t been able to do a Classic 13 and was definitely looking forward to getting back on track with it and when a co-worker told me I have to watch Naked Gun. Figured, that I would save it for today. It may sound strange that I haven’t watched this classic, but I don’t normally go out of my way to watch comedy movies all that often. While some are good, I don’t get a lot of enjoyment out of them. Lets dive in and see how Naked Gun is shall we.

The movie kicks off with a meeting between terrorists. Trying to plan out an attack on America. Only to be stopped by Police Squads on, Frank Drebin in an over the top fight, before making his escape through a window and we go to a opening title sequence from the view point of a police siren watching the car going through things like a house, roller coaster and even a girl’s locker room. Movie picking up with Nordberg watching the ship about to make a massive drug bust on his own. When he failed to kick down the door though. Ends up getting shot and running into a slew of awful things before going overboard. Frank comes back from his trip from Beirut to both that news and the news his girl had run off and married someone else. Going straight to the hospital to find out what Norbert knew about his attackers, only to do more damage to him than anything else. His wife showing him a picture of the ship. Before they can go to the dock they have to attend a press conference that pertains to the impending arrival of the Queen of England. A conference that goes wrong pretty quickly. After a back and forth bribery exchange with the Dock Master, is told he is dealing Heroin for respected businessman and owner of the docks Ludwig. The same man who ordered Nordberg to be killed on the dock. Who is quick to help him by getting assistant Miss Jane Spencer to collect the shipping files. Files that don’t have the ship in question. Then he finds out that they found drugs on Nordberg’s clothes and is given twenty four hours to clear his name, before the Queen’s arrival and that is where I will leave it for now.

This was a fun story. A cop who tried his best, but continuously bungled the situations that he found himself in. Fact that he plays it serious half the time added to the amusement. Some of the jokes were hysterical. Such as the back and forth bribery scene and when the airbag blew all the way up and kept going. To the point it put the car into gear and rolled away. Actually most of him hitting stuff when he parked and the car chase was great. Helped massively by a comedy great, Leslie Nielsen.

Leslie is just a legend in comedy. His delivery and ability to play it as straight while insane things breaks out around. To go along with his ability to talk. Made this movie fun to watch and he was backed up by a solid supporting cast.

With that said, there were some negatives. Some jokes fell just flat and boring and some just didn’t know when to end. Such as when Nordberg was shot and kept hitting things and was funny, but they just kept it going. To the point it wasn’t funny anymore and just meh. Then the musical montage with him and Jane was just dumb. It felt like it slowed down the pacing and one two many being that they would do something similar later on when he was in disguise as the umpire.

I get why this is a classic and beloved movie and it should be held up in high regard and there are plenty of good moments to be had. If you haven’t checked it out. You should you’ll probably have a great time with it. Comedy is just not really something I enjoy all that much and think that hurt it going in. I am glad I watched it, but won’t be in a hurry to watch it again. Final Grade – B –

As always, I hope you enjoyed and…

Thank You For Watching.