Liam Neeson shows a different set of skills in the hilarious new reboot of “The Naked Gun,” opening this week. The actor, a go-to for action films since “Taken,” dives head first into comedy in the new reboot, spearheaded by director Akiva Schaffer (“Saturday Night Live,” “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping”) and from producer Seth MacFarlane (“Ted,” “Family Guy”).
Stepping into the clumsy shoes of Frank Drebbin Jr., Neeson literally follows a destructive “Plot Device” through a maze of intersecting crimes and scenarios, all played for nonstop laughs. Pamela Anderson stars as Beth Davenport, the grieving sister of a man who worked for a sinister corporation led by Richard Cane (Danny Huston). Paul Walter Hauser (“Cobra Kai,” “Richard Jewell”) also stars as Capt. Ed Hocken Jr., the son of George Kennedy’s character from the original series.
While an entirely new gang is behind the wheel of the reboot, “The Naked Gun” serves as a terrific homage to the original series and also stands on its own. The jokes are relentless and unapologetically stupid, elicited frequent uproarious laughter in the theater during my preview. Surprisingly, besides a few seriously off-color moments, the film seems intended for a broader audience than the recent crop of R-rated and unrated films released in the last few decades.
Anderson, like her leading man, isn’t known as a comedienne, but she holds her own, delivering a howling performance at an underground jazz club. Neeson’s rough exterior mixed with brainless decisions and clueless dialogue flow together flawlessly to send up many of the police dramas and films he’s appeared in. Huston’s diabolical Cane, a tech founder who boasts of driverless cars, cutting edge technology, and a pumpkin farm, is also memorable.
Beyond the few innuendos that stretch the bounds of a PG-13 rating, the profanity is mild and the violence is mostly slapstick. A few jokes poke fun at relevant pop culture topics such as Bill Cosby, O.J. Simpson, and “Sex in the City,” but it refreshingly also steers clear of easy political jabs.
Are there larger themes in the new film? Does the comedy hint at something bigger? No. It’s just comedy for comedy’s sake. It doesn’t exist just to honor the original and present a new series going forward, but mostly to bring people together to laugh. And that’s a good thing, in my opinion. What the world needs now . . . is laughter, sweet laughter.
“The Naked Gun,” directed by Akiva Schaffer and starring Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, Cody Rhodes, Liza Koshy, Eddie Yu, with Danny Huston, opens August 1 from Paramount Pictures.
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