A Non-review by Professor Popinjay
Usually I’d do a treatise on the entire Naked Gun franchise when a new modern installment comes about but I really haven’t seen the originals recently enough to remember them all too well.
A lot of people may not realize the Naked Gun movies are actually an extension of the show Police Squad! which aired only six episodes before cancellation. Network executives felt viewers had to pay too close attention to catch the humor. Oh, God forbid someone has to actually pay attention to the shows they’re interested in. Yes, we need shows people can just turn on and then slip into a pacified coma. No one wants a show that they actually have to watch!
After the show was prematurely cancelled for stupid reasons, Leslie Nielson’s Frank Drebin was revived in the Naked Gun franchise with Naked Gun: From the files of Police Squad!, Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, and Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult. (1988-1994)
Absurdist comedies were all the rage for a while. If there was the possibility of a joke or gag, they went for it. It wasn’t always the smartest of humor but it held a special charm regardless. As with most popular things though, we got inundated with these comedies and as they (gnomes) started cranking them out, naturally the quality went down and we got bored with them.
Absurdist comedies kept getting made like The Scary Movie franchise and the Epic Movie franchise, Not Another Teen Movie, etc. Most of these centered around sexually explicit humor. Leslie Neilson actually got involved with some of these, I’m ashamed to say.
I’m also ashamed to say I’ve previously been using the word “screw-ball” to describe this kind of comedy only to learn the word is reserved more for films like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987) or A Fish Called Wanda (1988). I’ve retroactively corrected this mistake all the way back to the beginning of time. 
Nevertheless, these weren’t the type of films dad would bring home to amuse the whole family. These were the types of films dad would bring home thinking they would be fun and then we’d turn it off the instant something lowbrow and unsavory happened. I’m loath to describe it even in technical terms.
Of course, Naked Gun wasn’t without its moments of sexual humor. It was actually funny though! And it wasn’t all the time. As a kid, I didn’t get those jokes anyway, and if I did get it I’d be grounded for a week. I’m kidding. We could tolerate someone making a humorous mildly inappropriate joke now and then. My dad would always make a mocking laugh sound, as if to say “We are not amused!” But then we’d still finish the movie usually. Pretty sure that was all for my mom’s sake anyway. I know I was amused and I bet my dad was too.
Twenty-eight years after the excellent Wrongfully Accused (1998), considered to be Leslie Neilson’s last screw-ball comedy, and Thirty-two years after the last Naked Gun film, audiences were primed once more for another insult, making 33⅓ not so final after all.
Casting Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin’s son so they could presumably save money on monogrammed stationary previously used by Leslie Neilson, Liam fills the role far better than anyone expected. The man is stone-faced during the zaniest of jokes! Would you expect to see this man bite the end off of a gun in the middle of a fight… while wearing a pleated plaid skirt!?!
This wasn’t Neeson’s first foray into comedy though. He was hilarious as Good Cop/Bad Cop in The Lego Movie (2014). Perhaps that role was an audition for the Drebin role. It would make sense. He was playing both sides of a comedy duo. Also, there were a few scenes in Darkman (1990) I find hilarious that probably weren’t supposed to be.
Besides, biting the end off of a gun is probably something Neeson might actually do in a fight. I imagine Neeson just showed up and was told to be himself and improvise. Maybe they told him it was all real to get genuine gun-biting reactions from him.
It was a fun release from an onslaught of dark serious films. You do have to pay close attention to catch all the jokes. That’s the fun of it though. It makes watching it again all the more fun because you might catch different things the second time around. Watch it with different people and catch different things each time. Those network execs wouldn’t know quality entertainment if it swam up and bit them on the ass.
I’m kind of hoping this was a one-off though. If they start trying to 1-up themselves with a perpetual string of sequels I can see things going downhill fast. Not even a full year later we have yet another Scary Movie installment which I have heard is stupid as all get out.
If Neeson signs on again, I’d say that’s a good sign. If he doesn’t, I’d wash my hands of these. Okay, I’d wash my hands of expecting anything good but I’d probably still watch it.
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