- Introduction -

Being quite a fan of daft parody movies, yes I'll admit I own the Scary Movie trilogy and found the first one hilarious!, of course this was something that would interest me. I have seen other movies in the Naked Gun trilogy in the past and my dad used to be quite the fan, though he's seen them too many times now I believe, my mum is fed up of such movies so I watched this one in my own time lol. It was shown during the New Year holidays on TV and I decided to record it for later enjoyment, so I watched it last night and here's what its all about as well as my take on it, of course.

- Main Credits (non-actors, which are mentioned further on in the review) -
Source:- IMDB (see:- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095705/fullcredits)

Director - David Zucker
Writers (TV series 'Police Squad') - Jim Abrahams, Dvid Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Writers (movie) - Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Pat Proft
Associate Producers - Kevin Marcy, John D. Schofield
Executive Producers - Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Producer - Robert K. Weiss
Cinematography - Robert M. Stevens (director of photography)

- Story (incl. main acting cast) -

Naked Gun brings lieutenant Frank Drebin (played by Leslie Neilson) onto the big screen, in the first of three 'Naked Gun' movies. The character originally appeared in the TV comedy show 'Police Squad'. In this particular movie, as he tries to find out who tried to kill his friend and partner Detective Nordberg (played by OJ Simpson, yes 'that' OJ), after he tried to take down a gang of criminals who had been shipping in heroin through a shipping port, he becomes suspicious of a man called Vincent Ludwig (played by Ricardo Montalban), who it turns out has a plot to assassinate the Queen (played by Jeannette Charles), when she visits LA on a tour of America.

While trying to foil this dastardly deed, he also becomes romantically involved with Jane Spencer (played by Priscilla Presley).

- Genre -

This is most definitely a slapstick parody comedy.

- Thoughts/Opinions/Extra Information -

To me, this movie is quite hilarious because, although the humour is mainly rather low brow, there is an element of cleverness about it. At the time it came out (1988), I feel it was probably breaking new ground in the realm of parody comedies, at least to some extent... and it clearly worked, at least enough to be worth making another two sequels, both of which continue with the same slapstick parody comedy evident here, of course.

Its the randomness and the daftness of the humour I suppose that I like, I don't know, it doesn't try to be overly clever and neither does it go too low either, with any jokes or parodies on anything too tasteless (well ok maybe one or two are a little tasteless but only pretty briefly, you don't feel too much malice for the guy, who is a bit of a walking diaster zone!), put it that way. Its all done in a good natured sort of way and you don't feel sorry for laughing both at and with the character, I feel. The one liners Frank gives are often very silly but with some wit and definitely alot of humour too, so it works well. Okay its all well and fine me saying this but how do you know that you would find it funny? is the question probably on your lips, so I'll include some quotes to help give you an idea of the sort of thing to expect (only a few, of course I wouldn't want to overly spoil the film for anyone). Credit for these quotes go to IMDB, see:- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095705/quotes

Frank: It's a topsy-turvy world, and maybe the problems of two people don't amount to a hill of beans. But this is our hill. And these are our beans!

Det. Nordberg: Drugs... drugs...
Frank: Nurse! get this man some drugs!
[nurse administers drugs]
Det. Nordberg: No... no...
[pulls Frank towards him]
Det. Nordberg: Heroin. Heroin, Frank.
Frank: Uh... that's a pretty tall order, it'll take a couple of days for that one.

Nurse #2: Mrs. Nordberg, I think we can save your husband's arm. Where would you like it sent?

[offering a cigar]
Vincent Ludwig: Cuban?
Frank: No, Dutch-Irish. My father was from Wales.

Jane: Would you like a nightcap?
Frank: No thank you, I don't wear them.

Jane: How could you do something so vicious
Vincent Ludwig: It was easy my dear. You forget I spent two years as a building contractor.

You get the idea! some of it is pretty corny but it is pretty funny. Its not just the lines either but there is alot of visual humour present too, its a bit like a comic strip come to life, with certain props bringing laughs as well as the characters and the script. Its pretty wacky but it should have something to make anyone laugh, its the kind of movie that younger kids would enjoy greatly for the physical slapstick humour/comedy, whereas the older, adult audience will enjoy the wit from the dialogue, I feel.

Really nothing isn't parodied in the movie either, from the American viewpoint of royalty to, of course, the police and your stereotyped villanious no good uh villain lol to more political figures who appear somewhat randomly, including Idi Amin, Gorbachev and Arafat (which does date it a little but the movie doesn't suffer too much from this as the humour is still there).

Its the mix of, in some places, utter randomness, with what seems like again at times pretty well thought out, witty dialogue, that makes it work so well, in my view. The start of the movie, showing what we're to believe is a cop car driving around all these random places where cars wouldn't normally be, like inside clubs and along the pavement, while it doesn't sound overly funny, it just is, in a sort of a zany, silly kind of a way.

There have been plenty of parody movies made, that try to take the mickey out of certain genres and actors and so on, take for instance movies like Epic Movie and the newly released Meet the Spartans, which I've heard of and it sounds like its getting a real panning by the critics, they don't seem to be doing this genre of parody movies too great a favour, really, as they don't appear to be greatly hitting the mark, so to speak. I think the difference is that such movies appear to me to be rather too sloppy, using really quite obvious and predictable jokes, that we ourselves, to some degree, could do and it just seems like its all got rather lazy, whereas certainly at the original time of release, The Naked Gun was something that was a little more fresh and original. Sure, the people behind this movie (Jim Abrahams and David Zucker) had done similar movies and the character of Frank Drebin was one that had been seen on TV before but it seems to me that this movie works so well and isn't entirely cringeworthily bad (hey, new saying!) because it just feels like it had some proper thought and decent dialogue added to it, that added that extra boost that made it be worth watching and made it be entertaining enough, if this makes any sense?! the character of Frank, while he can say some rather temporarily offensive things, well you can tell he has this kind of comedic stupid element that makes you laugh at him and not find him quite as offensive as perhaps he otherwise may have been seen as... its a role that Leslie is well known for and he plays it off well in this. The delivery of his lines is top notch and he showcases his ability for physical comedy well too.

I'm afraid I can't really not comment on the fact that indeed OJ is in it, as he features in the other sequels too. Now I think if you haven't heard about what happened in the 1990s with this guy going to trial and the whole media circus that ensured, you must have lived under a rock (or been very young, I only just remember it right enough but im still aware of it). I can't help but feel a little, uh, peculiar about it and in the search for any disadvantages, I thought I guess his name is one of them, it may put people off wanting to see it perhaps... im not one to like to presume things about people but, well, hopefully you know what im saying!

- Certificate -

The Naked Gun is rated 15, which, although it is perhaps a little harsh for nowadays (if it was released nowadays, it may be more likely to be rated 12, especially if one or two of the jokes were taken away but otherwise, it could be easily a 12 rate I feel), is due to some bad language and sexual references. I don't remember any strong violence and there was no drug use, only the reference at the start of the movie of the gang shipping in heroin but there were no scenes of drug use.

- Official Website -

There doesn't appear to be an official website for this movie, which isn't surprising considering it dates back to the late 80s, before the internet was really used for such things. However, you can find out plenty of information about the movie through its entry on good ol' IMDB of course (IMDB = (The) Internet Movie DataBase), which you'll find here:- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095705/

- Conclusions -

This is a very daft and silly movie but also a very funny one, if this is your kind of humour. There's plenty of parody here but its better, I feel, than some of the more recent and in my opinion, more lazier parody movies. This movie did well in the box office and has led to two more sequels and although it doesn't outright equate to that it must be a marvellous movie, I certainly think its well worth watching and if you enjoy it, check out the sequels too, which, if memory serves me right, are just as amusing. One of which features Frank interrupting the Oscars one year when the terrorists planted a bomb inside one of the envelopes! its hilarious, trust me, as is this movie.

If your not sure about it, wait for it to come on TV, as I've seen it being shown numerous times, on Channel 4, the BBC and Paramount Comedy, over the years. If you want a good entertaining laugh and this is your sort of thing (think along the lines of Airplane!), I highly recommend it!.

Thanks, as always, for reading!