Review by Paul Salfen
This is Paul Salfen with your KLAK Movie Minute. In theaters this weekend is The Naked Gun, the long-awaited reboot of the beloved franchise this time starring Liam Neeson and well, let’s just say it would have been a great short film. While there are several big laughs, the hit to miss ratio is way off. A lot of jokes just didn’t land – even in a full theater of non-critics. While the trademark deadpan delivery, sight gags, and off-kilter humor are intact, there’s something about putting it out in this era that seems off. Although thankfully they don’t shy away from risque humor and it’s nice to see a return to that, most of these just seemed like bad dad jokes. And while it’s great to see Liam Neeson get to show off his comedy chops and Pamela Anderson do so as well – and yes, their now-obvious chemistry is there, it just doesn’t work that well as a whole. Leslie Nielsen really owned the role and while Neeson plays his son with the same name -it’s kind of the same character. It’s hard to think of who could top him and without the Zucker Brothers and the late Jim Abrahams that brought us the originals as well as Airplane and Top Secret and the later Scary Movie films, the gag just wasn’t quite there. SNL’s Akiva Schaffer took over and while this bumbling cop saves the day story has been done before, it’s been done better. That’s it for this week. Join me next week and every week for another Movie Minute right here on 97.5 KLAK, AMFM Magazine, and RECRD.
