Review: The Naked Gun

By Kip Mooney • On July 31, 2025 • In Featured, Reviews Featured, Reviews Comments Off

Score: A-

Director: Akiva Schaffer

Cast: Liam Neeson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, Pamela Anderson

Running Time: 85 Minutes

Rated: PG-13

Just getting a studio comedy in theaters is cause for celebration. Most get dumped to streaming to be watched once and forgotten. But this Naked Gun is not merely remixing IP or mining nostalgia. It's the funniest movie since Game Night.

From its opening moments to its end credits, this sequel/reboot/whatever only has one goal: to make you laugh. And it succeeds over and over again. Every few seconds, there is a visual gag, callback, or bit of clever wordplay. Sometimes, the cast and crew even pull off all three in the same scene.

Just like his father, Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) is a dedicated cop who plays by his own rules, bumbling his way to solving cases. And like his pops (the late, great Leslie Nielsen) did in the previous three movies, he tries to stop an evil rich dude (Danny Huston) from going through with a sinister scheme.

By now it's no surprise that director and co-writer Akiva Schaffer (one-third of the Lonely Island) has a great visual style and knack for physical comedy. Having directed cult classics Hot Rod and Popstar – as well as the Emmy-winning Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers – he makes the most of every scene, even when he has to double Atlanta for L.A.

And while Neeson is the most committed he's been in years, he has no problem letting his co-stars shine. Paul Walter Hauser, playing the son of George Kennedy's captain from the original series, serves as a great sidekick. He can be the straight man, the punching bag, or the wild card, depending on the scene. But the real revelation is Pamela Anderson. The biggest sex symbol of the '90s has capped an impressive comeback, proving she can handle musicals (Chicago on Broadway), dramas (The Last Showgirl), and now comedies. I can't wait to see what she does next.

This not a film that pushes boundaries or innovates new methods of filmmaking. It would be a mistake to call it important. But something so sublimely silly deserves just as much attention. A movie this successful at providing laughs in a time that seems hopeless is doing the world a service.

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.