Watchable, so not hilarious
When I checked the Imdb rating a few weeks ago it was around 7.5 so I was expecting some good laughs. The rating has dropped in the meantime and rightly so. I had some chuckles, nothing more.
The movie tries very hard to capture that typical Naked Gun humor, which was more or less a combination of deadpan humor, slapstick, wordpuns and just general absurdity. Herein lies the main problem, the movie tries it without actually doing it. It's like they followed a recipe from a cookbook, but did not get the temperature, ingredients and timing right and the new cook doesn't fully get it.
What I mean, is that a lot of jokes were just silly. Take for instance when Drebin bites off the barrels of some guns of his attackers. That's very unrealistic, but if it serves to set up a joke, that's not a problem. However, it was not a setup, it was the joke itself. That's just silly and silly does not equate to funny. And this is my problem with a lot of jokes in the movie. I missed 'sharp' jokes that would really tickle your funny bone.
The story line did not help either, because it was pretty cheesy and felt more like a parody of an 80s movie. I missed the drama, suspense and the feeling that stakes were involved. A good comedy movie has these things too. Again, they tried, but it wasn't good enough. The acting was OK, although I kept wondering the whole movie how I would like it if someone else other than Neeson played Drebin. That means something was missing.
In all, I can't objectively say it was a bad movie. I had some laughs, the acting wasn't bad and it was interesting to see Anderson and Neeson together in a movie. It was meagre for a Naked Gun movie, but it was acceptable in itself.
The movie tries very hard to capture that typical Naked Gun humor, which was more or less a combination of deadpan humor, slapstick, wordpuns and just general absurdity. Herein lies the main problem, the movie tries it without actually doing it. It's like they followed a recipe from a cookbook, but did not get the temperature, ingredients and timing right and the new cook doesn't fully get it.
What I mean, is that a lot of jokes were just silly. Take for instance when Drebin bites off the barrels of some guns of his attackers. That's very unrealistic, but if it serves to set up a joke, that's not a problem. However, it was not a setup, it was the joke itself. That's just silly and silly does not equate to funny. And this is my problem with a lot of jokes in the movie. I missed 'sharp' jokes that would really tickle your funny bone.
The story line did not help either, because it was pretty cheesy and felt more like a parody of an 80s movie. I missed the drama, suspense and the feeling that stakes were involved. A good comedy movie has these things too. Again, they tried, but it wasn't good enough. The acting was OK, although I kept wondering the whole movie how I would like it if someone else other than Neeson played Drebin. That means something was missing.
In all, I can't objectively say it was a bad movie. I had some laughs, the acting wasn't bad and it was interesting to see Anderson and Neeson together in a movie. It was meagre for a Naked Gun movie, but it was acceptable in itself.
- marseloDutch
- Sep 20, 2025