L'agent fait la farce

What a pleasant surprise that movie was. It really brought back the humour and the spirit of the old movies while still bringing its own fresh flair to it. Not every joke might land but there are so many of them in the movie and most of them worked for me. It has been a while since I saw a movie so eager to make you laugh.

Comedy movies seem to be nearing extinction. And this type of stoopid-funny humor has been nonexistent. Long gone are the days of the Zoolanders, Kung Pows, Scary Movies, and Austin Powerses. Until now.

The Naked Gun is extremely stoopid in the best way possible. There are so many times I was shaking my head at the absurdity of what I was watching. It's cleverly random and strategically obnoxious.

I laughed out loud too many times to count. I would estimate an 85% hit rate for me. Combine that with the nonstop quick rate of comedic attempts, maybe 5-10 per minute. It was a good time.

It has an awesome musical score by beast composter Lorne Balfe, and some well-shot action scenes that feel cinematic. These things are completely unnecessary for this type of comedy movie. But it made the experience that much better.

If you're a fan of stoopid-funny, definitely check this out.

(2 viewings, opening Thursday 7/31/2025. 11/13/2025)

The old Naked Gun films thrived on Leslie Nielsen's charisma: his deadpan delivery could make even the weakest moment funny. That's why the news that Liam Neeson would star in the 2025 revival initially felt odd - he's not a comedy actor at all. But then again, Nielsen himself came from serious dramas, and the contrast is what made him iconic. In this film, Neeson does his best as the "serious man in an absurd world," and sometimes it works, though the magic isn't quite there. Some jokes land, others fall completely flat.

It was nice to see a respectful nod to Leslie Nielsen - a small touch that adds some warmth. Still, the movie feels mostly like a play on nostalgia: it's watchable once, with a few laughs along the way, but there's no real sense that it ever needed to exist.

I got just about what I expected-but I was hoping for a miracle. And a miracle could have happened if they had stayed true to the spirit of the original films. The originals are a parody of classic noir/detective cinema, with Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin doing absurd things with a completely straight face-just like Peter Sellers did a few years earlier in The Pink Panther.

Even though everything around them is parodic (as are their actions), they themselves remain serious characters and see themselves that way. In this film, though, they let that go. They threw in a bunch of anarchic humor and unintelligent stunts-clearly, in my view, aiming to attract a younger audience.

And that audience seemed to enjoy the film quite a bit. We older fans, on the other hand, swallowed the lump in our throats and took some comfort in the solid performances of our beloved aging stars, consoling ourselves that it turned out relatively well.

There were so many types of gags and different styles of humor that it felt like a mash-up of classic comedies with a modern look. Some parts felt Naked Gun (obviously), but others felt Monty Python or Austin Powers. I thought this would suck but it just made me smile the whole time. There was about a 20 minute stretch in the middle of the film where I didn't stop laughing. The absurdism is on point and jokes don't overstay their welcome.