Latest news with #LeslieNielsen
Time of India
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
‘The Naked Gun' 2025 premiere leaves audiences in stitches; Critics hail Liam Neeson's comedic reinvention
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel After three decades in development limbo, The Naked Gun has returned to the big screen and will be released on August 1. According to early reactions from Monday's premiere, and if the social media buzz is a thing, it's a triumphant, tear-inducing comeback that's just as outrageous, silly, and relentlessly funny as fans by Akiva Schaffer (Popstar, Palm Springs) and produced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, the 2025 reboot marks a bold leap into slapstick for Liam Neeson , who plays Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., the son of Leslie Nielsen's iconic detective from the original Pamela Anderson , Paul Walter Hauser, and Danny Huston, Neeson has stunned audiences, not with intensity this time, but with impeccable deadpan delivery and comic response from film critics and fans at the New York premiere was swift and euphoric.'There are like six different scenes in The Naked Gun that made me laugh so hard I cried,' tweeted critic David Ehrlich. 'Even the title card is funny. I wrote 'SO DUMB (complimentary)' in my notebook several times.'Dan Mecca of The Film Stage called the reboot 'a freakin' miracle' — a modern comedy that's 'tightly scripted (under 90 minutes!), hilariously funny, and has a simple, meaningful message about the state of the world.'Critic Rendy Jones perhaps summed up the general feeling best: 'Big 'they just don't make these like this anymore' vibes… I think I ruptured a spine or a ribcage or a cheekbone because of how hard I was laughing.'Many pointed out that Neeson, long seen as the brooding face of the Taken franchise, reinvents himself with unexpected brilliance.'Might have laughed harder during this than any movie this year,' said critic Shaurya Chawla. 'One of Liam Neeson's best performances in so long. Loved Pamela Anderson here too. What a blast.'Others praised the film's ability to honor the spirit of the originals without being stuck in the past. 'It's not just a cover band,' wrote David Gonzalez. 'It follows the golden rule: be funny.'Perhaps most significantly, the film is being hailed as a much-needed return to theatrical comedy. 'We just don't see movies like this anymore,' several critics noted, how rare it is today to watch an entire theatre erupt in collective full reviews still to drop and the film set for worldwide release on August 1, The Naked Gun is shaping up to be a surprise hit, not just for nostalgic fans of Leslie Nielsen's absurd detective antics, but for anyone hungry for a genuinely funny, unpretentious comedy.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hollywood Flashback: Before ‘The Naked Gun,' ‘Police Squad!' Took Its Shot
Four decades ago, Police Squad! didn't log much time with viewers but still lined up an impressive legacy. Following the success of 1980 spoof film Airplane!, which made $78 million at the box office ($214 million today) co-directors David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker hoped to make a similar comedy about police officers inspired by the 1950s Lee Marvin drama series M Squad. Then-Paramount exec Michael Eisner, who had championed Airplane!, offered them six episodes on ABC and promised that the process would be free of network meddling. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'South Park' Removed From Paramount+ Outside the U.S. Ex-'60 Minutes' Correspondent Steve Kroft Calls $16M Trump Settlement a "Shakedown" 'Ice Road: Vengeance' Review: Liam Neeson Returns for a Forgettable Sequel to an Already Forgotten Action Flick Police Squad! centered on bumbling officer Frank Drebin as played by Leslie Nielsen, known for dramatic roles before his crackup part in Airplane! 'Leslie never let on that he was in a comedy,' David Zucker tells The Hollywood Reporter of the late star's knack for deadpan humor. Co-starring Alan North, each episode kicked off with the murder of a notable guest, followed by Drebin cracking the case. Among the guests were William Shatner and Florence Henderson; John Belushi filmed a death scene, but when the actor passed away a day after the pilot aired, his appearance was shelved. Police Squad! premiered March 4, 1982, and had critics in stitches — THR's review praised the show for 'hitting the bullseye with uncanny accuracy' — but had trouble locking up ratings, leading to the series' cancellation after four episodes. The Police Squad! team had the last laugh, as Nielsen's Drebin returned for Paramount's 1988 film The Naked Gun, which David Zucker helmed. After two sequels, a Naked Gun reboot hits theaters Aug. 1 with Liam Neeson playing Drebin's son. Zucker feels burned to not be involved but is proud that the show has been rediscovered: 'It has really gained a following.' This story appeared in the July 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Liam Neeson: From Paisley-loving Catholic boy to actor, then action man, now comedy star
Liam Neeson is taking over the lead role in the Naked Gun series from Leslie Nielsen . This makes some sense. If you watched his supporting turn in Ricky Gervais 's Extras or Lisa McGee 's Derry Girls, you will know he has a good line in deadpan comedy. The action roles he's focused on over the last decade and a half provide him with a persona on which he can ironically riff. But he is in a very different place to Nielsen when he moved into comedy with Airplane! in 1980. The Canadian performer was a busy, but only modestly famous, 'that guy' actor of the chiselled school. It was the Zucker brothers' Airplane! and, from the same team, Naked Gun, that belatedly made him a star. He is the beloved straight-faced comic who bossed the stuffed beaver joke. Neeson comes to The Naked Gun – a 'legacy sequel' to 1994's Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult – as an Oscar- and Tony-nominated actor who has worked with Steven Spielberg , Martin Scorsese , Neil Jordan , Christopher Nolan , Woody Allen and Clint Eastwood . He was an Irish movie star when we didn't really have such things. As a young man he acted at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast and at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin. He's played God on TV and (as Aslan the lion) an incarnation of Jesus Christ on film. It's rather as if, in 1980, the Zuckers had chosen Richard Burton as their comic lead. READ MORE Then again, the art to being Neeson has, as we shall see, always involved some defiance of expectations. In early 2009 many raised eyes at him appearing in a straight-up action film. Taken proved an enormous hit – one of his defining roles – and he has spent much of his senior years leaping from helicopters and evading rocket-propelled grenades. Why wouldn't he take on the role of Frank Drebin Jr, son to Nielsen's elder Drebin, opposite the tireless Pamela Anderson in The Naked Gun? 'I thought, yeah, I guess I could do that as long as I play it dead seriously and not try and imitate Mr Leslie Nielsen. He was wonderful,' he said before shooting began. 'I'm looking forward to it. It's a good script and there's a few laugh-out-loud moments in it.' Now that's how an Ulsterman boosts a screenplay. 'A few laugh-out-loud moments.' Don't get carried away, big man. Then there is that other great Neeson anomaly. He is a reticent interviewee, often bordering on uncommunicative, who, nonetheless, has an extraordinary ability to put his huge foot in it (whatever 'it' might be that week). He doesn't blurt out often. But when he does, nobody blurts quite like him. Neeson is the Botticelli of Blurt. I have been bumping into Neeson for a long time. Looking back at our interviews, I was surprised to discover that, 23 years ago, he was already having to manage his propensity to manoeuvre boot into ordure. 'He raises his hand, shakes his head and exhales a pained sigh,' I wrote. 'Having put his foot in it once too often in the past, the 50-year-old actor is now inclined toward a great deal of head shaking and sighing.' In 2002? This was long before his controversial blurt on the Weinstein affair, the misinterpreted blurt on becoming a Muslim and, most notoriously, that blurt on his brief inclination to become a vigilante. In 2022 he was still cleaning up after what now seems like a throwaway gag about quitting the business. 'Well, this lady didn't get it,' he said. 'I didn't mean it. But before long, my agent was getting calls. And he was phoning me up: am I giving up the business? But it really was all my own fault.' Liam Neeson in Taken My memory is of a fellow minding every syllable he uttered. This straight-talking Ballymena man wasn't made for the microscopic attention of the contemporary press tour. He found a place in Hollywood. He is long resident in New York. But Ulster still runs strong in his psyche. The son of Barney, a school caretaker, and Kitty, a cook, Neeson first fell for drama at St Patrick's College in Ballymena. Piecing together his opinions on growing up Catholic in a heavily Protestant locale, one runs up against some apparent contradictions. In 2000 he declined the offer to take freedom of that Antrim town after local unionists objected to – perfectly reasonable – comments he had made about how Catholics were treated there during his childhood. Maurice Mills, a DUP councillor, said Neeson had 'vilified the people of this town and in particular the Protestant people'. (Neeson ended up accepting freedom of the town in 2013.) In truth, the actor has never played the poor mouth when discussing his early years in Ballymena. 'I personally never really experienced huge sectarianism there,' he told me in 2018. 'I have said before – and I got in trouble for saying it – that we were second-class citizens in the North. That being said, I was made head boy at a school that was predominantly Protestant.' At any rate, the acting bug got hold of him early. An early influence was, bizarrely, fellow Ballymena man Ian Paisley, whose Old Testament vehemence he used to savour surreptitiously from the back of that troublesome clergyman's church. Liam Neeson and Brenda Scallon in Translations by Brian Friel at Guildhall, Derry, in 1980. Photograph: Rod Tuach. Neeson's parents were, understandably enough, concerned about him moving into acting – he had briefly studied physics and computer science at Queen's University – but were surely pacified when, in 1975, he successfully auditioned for the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Speaking to him at a public interview in 2009 I was moved by how fondly he remembered his own excitement at acing the audition. He could still walk me through the journey from Belfast back to Ballymena. 'I opened and closed that bit of paper so often it was almost worn through,' he said. 'I showed it to every soldier I met. But those were violent times. I got back at 11.30pm and my parents were expecting me home at 5.30pm.' He pointed back to the white cinema screen behind us. 'By the time I got back their faces were that colour. God, they were furious.' The succeeding decade looks a little like a happy slog. There were few enormous breaks. He worked steadily in increasingly respectable roles. After the Lyric, Neeson had a spell in the Project and another at the Abbey before John Boorman talent-spotted him for a role in 1980s Excalibur. He there met Helen Mirren and they spent five years as a couple in London. Heady times. She was moving into her pomp while he was still making the steady ascent. 'We loved each other. We were not meant to be together in that way, but we loved each other very, very much,' Mirren said, years later. 'I love him deeply to this day. He's such an amazing guy.' [ Liam Neeson: Unexpectedly beating up people at age 65 Opens in new window ] Neeson eventually took a deep breath and lunged for Hollywood. He got a decent job in The Bounty opposite Anthony Hopkins. You can catch him in the Palme d'Or-winning The Mission. He started his auteur run with the Dead Pool for Clint Eastwood in 1988 and Husband and Wives for Woody Allen in 1992. By that stage, he was in a position where work seemed secure. Maybe he would never be a star of the brightest magnitude – time was clattering on – but there are worse things than life as a middle-aged character actor. [ How did that nice Liam Neeson become a psychopathic killing machine? Opens in new window ] Schindler's List, from 1993, secured his place in the firmament. It is said that, after many auditions for the role, Spielberg's mother-in-law eventually identified him as the only man for the job. 'I've been told everyone was chasing that role,' he told me. 'I know that Kevin Costner, who was a huge star, wanted the part and he would have been very good. I believe Robert Duvall was mentioned at one stage.' Duvall, maybe. But Costner? Such speculation is now pointless. There's a stoic gentleness to Neeson that was perfectly suited to the role of a playboy businessman who, against his everyday nature, finds himself softening to the plight of German Jews as the Holocaust gathers pace. He has the gangly integrity of Gary Cooper, but with none of that actor's ingenuous, aw-shucks naivety. Early years as a boxer and a brewery worker hardened his frame. Neeson knows how to be a serious man. He was nominated for best actor at the Oscars (his only nod to date) but lost out to Tom Hanks for Philadelphia. Schindler's List was probably the shortest favourite to win best picture in the awards' history. Neeson had made an interesting journey. Still in his early forties, he arrived to stardom as a premature veteran. He could be very funny but there was nothing playful or trivial about his persona. When a Neeson character entered the room those already there tended to mind their manners. Three years after Schindler's List, he headlined a film that, for around a year, registered as the highest-grossing title ever in Ireland. It is hard now to appreciate the furore that attended the release of Neil Jordan's Michael Collins in 1996. The Celtic Tiger was just starting to bite. The divorce referendum had snuck through. Now Warner Bros had arrived to deliver our own version of Lawrence of Arabia. The film won the Golden Lion at Venice, where Neeson picked up the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. Liam Neeson in Schindler's List. Photograph: David James Neeson is from a long way north of Cork (well, what counts as a long way in Ireland). He was already a decade older than Collins at the time of his death. But Jordan stuck with his old pal and, whatever disputes there were about the film's political leanings, few questioned the worth of that lead performance. 'It was kind of terrifying because it was a film I wanted to make but to me it was just a film,' Jordan later said. 'I'd known Liam since he was in the Project Arts Centre in Dublin and when I was writing the script initially I spoke to him about it, and I said if I ever get to do this I'd like to do it with you.' Schindler's List surely helped that dream come true. In 2022 Neeson was asked why Michael Collins took so long to happen. 'Well, I think because of the war in Ireland,' he said. 'And I think obviously because of the controversy over the subject matter. And also, who the hell's Neil Jordan, and who the hell's Liam Neeson that he wants to play Michael Collins? That business aspect of it.' This is where it all came together for Neeson. He married Natasha Richardson, daughter of Vanessa Redgrave, in 1994, and they went on to have two children. Now the auteurs came to him. George Lucas cast him as Qui-Gon Jinn, wise mentor to a young Obi-Wan Kenobi, in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The film has a terrible reputation but it ultimately became the first Star Wars flick to take more than $1 billion. In acknowledgment of his status as a walking legend, Queen Elizabeth passed an OBE his way in 2000 . The past 15 years have, however, been turbulent. On the upside, in 2009, he made that surprising move towards action cinema and, then in his late fifties, established himself in the most taxing of genres as contemporaries were winding down into grandad roles. At the Dublin Film Festival in that year, I asked when he knew he had properly made it. 'Well, it's funny. Probably just the other week when Taken opened,' he said. 'The film was released last year in Europe and you've been able to download it for weeks from Korea or wherever, but it still became the biggest film at the box office in the US.' Liam Neeson is taking over the lead role in the Naked Gun series from Leslie Nielsen Just a few weeks after our conversation, Natasha Richardson died in a freak skiing incident and Neeson's priorities shifted accordingly. The support of Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson, Natasha's sister, proved invaluable. 'Everybody just pulled together,' Neeson said last year. 'Vanessa and Joely were extraordinary. We were fortunate in lots of ways.' 'It is, you know, completely heartbreaking,' Joely told me. 'I feel like we have been levelled in life and that we keep going for all the people we love.' Neeson has, indeed, persevered. Barely a year goes by without him craggily rescuing hostages from a speeding train or hang-gliding into a narco-den. His most recent roles were Mike McCann in Ice Road: Vengeance and (no joke) Thug in Absolution. If you can pull that off at 73 then why not? His biggest challenge may, however, be getting through the press tour for The Naked Gun without another incidence of blurting. His history here is extraordinary. We have mentioned his non-retirement in 2002. Ten years later it was reported he was thinking of becoming a Muslim. 'Ah, now that was taken out of context,' he told me. 'I remember doing a picture in Istanbul. The five calls to prayer initially drove me crazy. But after a few weeks I absolutely loved it. I bought a CD so that I could play it when I got back to New York. So then I was becoming a Muslim ...' In 2018, on the Late Late Show, he said that the fallout from the Harvey Weinstein scandal had caused 'a bit of a witch-hunt' and noted that he was 'on the fence' about allegations concerning Dustin Hoffman. All of these disturbances were nothing as to the flak that landed when, a year after the Late Late incident, in a routine promotional interview, he told how, after a friend was raped by a black man, he went out ' with a cosh, hoping I'd be approached by somebody '. It got worse. 'I'm ashamed to say that, and I did it for maybe a week – hoping some [air quote gesture] 'black b**tard' would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him,' he continued. After the story broke Neeson went on Good Morning America and offered a convincing, self-lacerating gloss on the situation. The world moved on. Most got that he had simply chosen the oddest imaginable place to make a confession about a regretted incident. No subsequent blurt has attracted such attention. But his PR handlers will be chewing their nails in the lead up to the unveiling of The Naked Gun. Neeson is an absolute original. Almost entirely in good ways.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
I Didn't Expect The Naked Gun To Get A Popcorn Bucket, But I'm Cracking Up Over The Deep Cut Reference That Allowed It To Happen
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. For a moment there, I thought I was the only person hyped for Liam Neeson's The Naked Gun. At the very least, I was convinced that the 2025 movie release was going to be a legacy-quel that saw me burrowed deep in one of my niches, with few others to speak about it with. This no longer seems like a concern to me, as if Frank Drebin Jr.'s adventures can land a theatrical popcorn bucket, there's got to be a decent sized fanbase for this picture! No one could have called it, but Regal Cinemas does indeed have its own Naked Gun collectable available for fans like me. What's more, this is possibly the best option for such a piece linked to Paramount's upcoming legacy-quel. Fans of Leslie Nielsen's work in the original trilogy (now streaming with a Paramount+ subscription) are going to be especially please to feast their eyes on this: Ok, before I enlighten any newcomers on why this is one of the funniest things in existence, I need to take a moment. Silliness such as a plastic beaver, standing in front of a log that literally says 'Nice Beaver' is something worth giving a dam(n). Now that I've had my moment, allow me to explain why this isn't some random innuendo that fits straight into this vision from director Akiva Schaffer and producer Seth MacFarlane. If you're new to The Naked Gun, but have been lured in with comedy only Liam Neeson could provide, this is actually a reference to the very movie adaptation of the short lived TV program Police Squad! Here's the clip in question, which shows Leslie Nielsen having a moment of inspiration with Priscilla Presley's Jane Spencer: The moment The Naked Gun legacy-quel was announced, I was a bit afraid that the cheeky humor of the originals was going to somehow be lacking. Over time trailers and other promotions have proven me wrong, with this new bucket being the ultimate proof that I can loosen up and welcome this new picture with an open heart. Unfortunately the buttered topping on this movie friendly snack of optimism is a moment that's not available online at this time. As I went to enjoy Superman's amazing 4DX screening, myself and the audience were treated to a small rant from Liam Neeson about our concession stand rights. Paramount Plus: from $7.99 a month/$79.99 a yearWhether you prefer your comedy in series, short, or movie form, Paramount+ has plenty to keep you laughing on the couch. So all you really need to re-watch The Naked Gun trilogy is an Essential plan, which goes for $7.99 a month. However, you can go ad-free and include the Showtime library in the mix, thanks to the Premium plan - priced at $12.99 a month. Of course I'm serious, but don't call me Shirley. That's another guy, in another Deal Peppered with some jokes pertaining to the DC movie we were about to watch, it was yet another example of how this saga keeps its fingers on the pulse of laughter. Should you need a refresher, or just want to soak a little longer in The Naked Gun's latest gag-filled trailer, you're covered. Just make sure you keep in mind that Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson will be standing on business as you sit in the theater, potentially with your own beaver out for convenient movie munching, on August 1st.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Pamela Anderson Kisses Liam Neeson on the Red Carpet at 'The Naked Gun' Premiere
Pamela Anderson is showing her love for her costar Liam Neeson. The 58-year-old actress planted a kiss on the cheek of her Naked Gun costar, 73, as the pair posed for pictures on the red carpet at the film's U.K. premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, England, on Tuesday, July 22. Anderson plays Beth, a sultry femme fatale in the NSFW film, which sees Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., the son of police detective Frank Drebin. He follows in his father's footsteps for the reboot-sequel of the 1980s and '90s crime comedies that originally starred the late Leslie Nielsen. 'I feel like I've just started my career now, so I'm just really excited to be such a part of this and to play a real character,' the Baywatch actress told PEOPLE at the premiere. Since filming began, she has spoken highly of the filming process. In an interview with Harper's Bazaar in June, Anderson promised the Akiva Schaffer-directed movie is 'going to show a different side of me.' "I feel every film I do lately is healing various parts of me,' she said. 'And you need a big, messy life to draw from if you want to make these kinds of things interesting." She recalled being discovered by a cameraman in 1989 while attending a football game near her Canadian hometown and being thrust into the spotlight ever since. "I went straight to the Playboy Mansion, I met all these people, and then, you know, life just kept going," she said. "I call them the blurry years. I just went on this crazy, wild ride that I had no control over,' Anderson said. The Last Showgirl star has also gushed over her newfound friendship with Neeson. "I think I have a friend forever in Liam," she told Entertainment Weekly for their July 8 digital cover. "And we definitely have a connection that is very sincere, very loving, and he's a good guy." Anderson, a Golden Globe nominee, went on to call the Taken actor "a true artist." "He comes from theater and Schindler's List and has done over a hundred films," she told the outlet. "And I did things inside out and backwards, came from television, and then my personal life kind of overshadowed my professional life. It is funny: We all come to this place in different ways, but to be able to share this experience with him is very meaningful and such an honor." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Paul Walter Hauser, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, Cody Rhodes, Liza Koshy, Eddie Yu and Danny Huston also star in the upcoming film. The Naked Gun, from Paramount Pictures, arrives in theaters Aug. 1. Read the original article on People
