‘The Naked Gun' review: Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson play it for laughs — and nail it

San Francisco Chronicle​

2 days ago

Part of the ongoing success of Liam Neeson's action movies, such as ' Taken,' ' Non-Stop ' and ' The Commuter,' has been that they're funny. They deliver in terms of action, but they've also been wonderfully absurd in the way that Neeson will tear into the coarsest melodrama as though it were a Eugene O'Neill tragedy.
But can Neeson be funny while actually knowing that he's being funny? Can he deliver in an intentional comedy? Has he been in on the joke all along? Those were questions going into 'The Naked Gun,' and the answer to all of them is yes.
'The Naked Gun' is an extension of a comic franchise that began in 1988 with 'The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!' and seemingly ended in 1994 with 'The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.' Those films starred Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin, an inept police lieutenant.
The kick at the time was in seeing Nielsen in a comic context, after he'd been previously known as a dour, dead-serious TV actor.
It's risky to take a winning comic formula and transplant another actor into it. For example, though no one would accuse Steve Martin of not being funny, he was the farthest thing from amusing when he attempted to replace Peter Sellers in a reboot of the 'Pink Panther' franchise.
Careful to avoid the same mistake, Berkeley-raised director and co-writer Akiva Schaffer (' Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping ') re-tools 'The Naked Gun' for Neeson's particular set of skills. The pre-credits sequence shows Drebin, Jr. (Neeson) breaking up a bank robbery, not in a way that's reminiscent of Leslie Nielsen, but of Neeson's action films.
Essentially, the whole opening is like something you might see in a 'Taken' movie, but amped up just enough that it becomes ridiculous. Neeson bites a gun in half with his teeth, kills somebody with a lollypop. Later he pulls off a guy's arms and beats him with them. It's a typical Neeson bloodbath, only played for comedy.
Schaffer's ability to capitalize on his audience's familiarity with Neeson's action movies is an important element in his comic arsenal, but Schaffer has other comic strategies available to him, as well. There are moments of inspired silliness, as when Drebin talks to a suspect that he mistakenly thinks was convicted of 'man's laughter' rather than 'manslaughter': 'That must have been quite the joke.'
There are hints of parody, such as a brief conversation that simultaneously sends up flirtatious moments in 'Double Indemnity' (1944) and 'The Big Sleep' (1946). There are moments of absurdity, as when the smooth-talking villain (Danny Huston) offers a woman a drink and then brags that it's from 'Bill Cosby's private estate.'
There are even subtle touches that don't call attention to themselves, such as when Frank puts on a glove and then contaminates a crime scene by touching everything with his other hand.
Akiva Schaffer is one third of the Lonely Island comedy trio, and this movie has a lot in common with the troupe's 'Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping,' with its imaginative, extended sequences. A comic highlight comes in a scene in which Frank and a mystery woman (Pamela Anderson) are having a perfectly innocent meeting in his apartment. Meanwhile, someone surveilling through an ultraviolet lens gets the false impression that they're performing a series of lewd sex acts, including one involving a dog.
The movie starts to slow down in its last third because there's nothing about the actual story to make us keep watching — it's only about the laughs. Fortunately, Schaffer is wise enough not to overstay his welcome. At 85 minutes, 'The Naked Gun' is just the right length.
Neeson is a delight and seems to be having as much fun as the audience. But the surprise here is Anderson, who was sad and plaintive in ' The Last Showgirl ' and now reveals herself a skilled and self-aware comedienne. Anderson is having a moment right now, and I'd like to see it continue.