Ticket 2 Ride

I am a big fan of Police Squad, Airplane!, The Naked Gun and other Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker entertainment. The new version of The Naked Gun, not so much.

Look, these films are not high art, but Airplane! set the standard. None of the crew from the previous three Naked Gun films (aside from a Priscilla Presley cameo and small Weird Al appearance). My expectations were moderately low for this film and I hoped I’d be surprised. I was, but not in a good way. The film raked in over $100 million at the box office, which isn’t a surprise. The comedy franchise has a lot of fans. The Rotten Tomatoes score is 87 percent which is puzzling to me. I seem to be alone in my assessment, as most of the different online reviews have praised this new film.

So for me, the problem is the film’s writing, and to a lesser degree the direction. Directed and co-written by Akiva Schaffer (Hot Rod, The Watch, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Ranger), he gets singled out for my comments. The film struggles to be funny, which it isn’t most of the time. Yes, it looks good and is professionally directed, but that only shines a brighter light on what’s wrong here. The original Naked Gun films were not pristine, there was always a cheapness in the look, which was right for the Lt. Frank Drebin escapades.

The film’s humor looks pretty weak, there’s not much of it and there’s too much air between gags. Liam Neeson is passable as the younger Drebin, though there seems no physical or comedic connection between Neeson and Leslie Nielsen. Neeson’s character is supposed to be the son of the Nielsen’s Frank Drebin, they are such different actors, other than both were known as dramatic actors. Neeson’s vocal delivery is so softly spoken and words tend to run together, making him difficult to understand.

I rarely get embarrassed by this type of stupid, low-brow humor. In one of the prior Naked Gun films, Nielsen is wearing a wireless microphone at a luncheon and excuses himself to go to the men’s room. The sound of him humming and urinating can be clearly heard in the ballroom by the dignitaries. It’s bathroom humor yes, but the way it’s done is creative – it’s funny. Here, there are scenes where Neesom as Drebin is in his kitchen with Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson) and his dog, while being watched by the villain’s right hand man who is using thermal imaging glasses. What he sees are images of a sexual nature, which is not happening in reality as the glasses play trickery with the images. Sex involving an animal is not funny, that part of the gag should have been cut.

The cast is pretty good, in addition to Neeson and Anderson are Danny Huston, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand and Paul Walter Hauser.

The film did have some funny scenes, I’ll give it that, just not enough for me. On a scale of 5, I’d give it a 2. I’m going to find Police Squad or the original Naked Gun, I’m hankering for the befuddled Leslie Nielsen.