Neeson plays Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., whose lineage only ever comes up for a few choice jokes, as another useless cop on the useless Police Squad. He’s effectively a live-action version of his role in The Lego Movie, violently traipsing around a world with almost as many visual gags. He’s also gruffer, stiffer, and a bit harder to understand than Nielsen ever was, which is fitting considering that Neeson is a decade-and-a-half older than his predecessor in the role. But Shaffer and his co-writers (Dan Gregor and Doug Mand) fill Frank Jr.’s loose investigation into a linked murder and bank heist with the necessary density of gags per square foot of film, letting them bounce off of Neeson’s awkward smile, dim-witted stare, and gravelly deadpans.
While Neeson and the sheer quantity of jokes carry much of the film—with Paul Walter Hauser capably filling in the George Kennedy role—it’s Pamela Anderson, as Frank’s love interest and the sister of the victim, who steals her scenes. Though she easily fits the bill as the object of ogling voiceover, Anderson goes big and ridiculous with an unassuming straight face. This is mirrored by The Naked Gun‘s wise choice not to fill its cast with comedian friends or celebrity cameos (though a few, like Busta Rhymes, slip through), but with veteran character actors able to commit to whatever boneheaded bit is asked of them. Danny Huston devours scenery and dialogue alike as the would-be macho tech-guy villain, stuffing his face with silly names and staring in disbelief at the idiocy he has to put up with as a Elon Musk-adjacent fool. His henchman Kevin Durand and Frank’s boss CCH Pounder skewer archetypes they’ve long mastered while avoiding any name-brand distractions.
And yes, it’s all mostly funny. Jokes range from classic over-literal eye-rollers, to riffs on an Oldboy-style hallway fight, to Austin Powers-like silhouette gags that get even raunchier than that horny franchise. Some running bits don’t connect, and some lower-hanging fruit sound like leftovers from producer Seth MacFarlane’s take on the material. But the topical humor—digging at self-driving vehicles and Silicon Valley manosphere residents—is often as strong as the evergreen stuff—like the shots at police brutality. But the best thing about the comedy is that, over the blissfully brisk runtime of 85 minutes, Schaffer and his team never let one joke, flop or hit, linger for too long before cramming a few more into the frame. And, every so often, a truly surreal detour happily allows the film to luxuriate in ideas that, if The Naked Gun was Saturday Night Live, would’ve never made it to air.
That stupid-smart mix of clunkers, wordplay, old-school set-ups, prop humor, and left-field ideas that the writers just couldn’t stop laughing at doesn’t inherently make for a comedy classic—especially as a late plot escalation draws attention to the dull sheen shining over much of the film—but it does prove how effective these films’ formula can be when followed properly. All The Naked Gun had to do to make it work in the modern film landscape was, ironically, Trojan Horse it inside of an old IP.
Director: Akiva Schaffer
Writer: Dan Gregor, Doug Mand, Akiva Schaffer
Starring: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand, Danny Huston
Release Date: August 1, 2025
