The Naked Gun Trailer is Surprisingly Good
Is Hollywood trying to bring the spoof back? Last week saw a teaser for Spaceballs 2, a sequel to Mel Brooks’ classic Star Wars parody. Today, the first full trailer for the remake/sequel/reboot of The Naked Gun was released, making you wonder if a new Hot Shots! or Airplane! is on the way, too. This one stars Liam Neeson in the role Leslie Nielsen made legendary, Lieutenant Frank Drebin of the Los Angeles Police Squad. Actually, that’s not quite right; Neeson plays the original Frank Drebin’s son, whose name is also Frank Drebin and who is a detective in the Police Squad. This Drebin is out to solve a murder while, we can assume, romancing the victim’s comely sister. Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston (who appears to be the main bad guy because who else would Danny Huston play?), CCH Pounder, and Kevin Durand join Neeson in the new entry in the series. Directed by The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer from a script by Shaffer, Dan Gregor, and Doug Mand and produced by Seth MacFarlane, The Naked Gun will hit theaters on August 1, 2025; you can see the trailer below:
As with Spaceballs 2, I have to admit that the Naked Gun trailer made me laugh. That’s an even bigger feat in this case because this is a full trailer with clips from the movie, not an opening crawl and some words from Mel Brooks. The style of humor seems to be two things at once; it’s a spoof in the vein of the original Naked Gun and its sequels – as well as Police Squad!, the short-lived TV show that spawned the films – and a send-up of Liam Neeson’s on-screen persona in the later stages of his career. This is Neeson poking fun at his post-Taken action hero reinvention, where he brutally beats, stabs, and neck-snaps his way through armies of bad guys. And based on the trailer, it could work; it would be nearly impossible to put Liam Neeson in a movie like this and not acknowledge his recent spate of action movies, so why not lean into it? The sight of him ripping a man’s arms off, commenting that it’s awesome, and then having fun slapping the guy with his own open palms is funny, and it’s hardly the last we see of that kind of gag. Meanwhile, the Zucker Brothers’ style of humor is present as well, like the characters all talking to pictures of their dead fathers or that great bit at the end where Neeson accidentally rips a hole in the prison wall and sets a bunch of criminals free while remaining completely oblivious.
Other stalwarts from the old movies are present in the Naked Gun trailer. Pamela Anderson’s character is clearly supposed to be a variation of Jane Spencer, Frank Drebin’s curvaceous blonde love interest played by Priscilla Presley. And Cole Walter Hauser is Ed Hocken, son of the original Ed Hocken, who was played by George Kennedy. The biggest standout is Liam Neeson, who, based on the trailer, doesn’t hit the same note Leslie Nielsen used to. The genius of Nielsen’s portrayal of Frank Drebin was his deadpan reactions and delivery; he played it like The Naked Gun was a serious cop movie, and that made the ridiculous things he said and did even funnier. (Nielsen was chosen for these Zucker spoofs in part because he used to be a dramatic actor, playing square-jawed hero types in movies like Forbidden Planet.) Neeson has a more knowing look, like he’s in on the joke; I’m not saying this won’t work, particularly as this movie is parodying Neeson as much as anything else, but it’s different. Perhaps that’s good; simply trying to recreate what Leslie Nielsen did would be a recipe for disaster. As much as I wish Hollywood would find a single franchise it was willing to leave alone, I liked the Naked Gun trailer, and it’s convinced me to give this one a try.
Let us know what you think of the Naked Gun trailer in the comments!
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