Review: The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

Rated PG-13

Score: 5 out of 5

The Naked Gun, a feature film version of the Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker team's short-lived but well-remembered 1982 ABC cop show parody Police Squad! (as its subtitle suggests), was the final movie that the three of them all worked on together, and it stands as a testament to why Jim Abrahams and the brothers David and Jerry Zucker are still considered some of the best film comics of all time, the capstone to an excellent run of madcap comedy spoofs spanning the late '70s and the '80s. The story, about the elite Los Angeles cop Frank Drebin investigating a drug ring that evolves into him foiling a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II during her goodwill tour of the US, is secondary to ZAZ's trademark rapid-fire humor, where they never waste an opportunity to cram in some funny jokes into every scene possible, and even craft some running gags out of them. Fart jokes, sex jokes, pee jokes, jokes about bad driving, jokes about bad parking, jokes about refrigerators full of spoiled food, jokes about expensive objects getting destroyed, jokes about the beautiful woman whose longing over-the-shoulder stare at the protagonist means that she trips up because she's not watching where she's going, and above all else, jokes about bumbling cops who seem to solve the case purely by accident. It's a style of comedy that's harder to get right than it looks, as evidenced by the many films in the '90s and '00s that tried to imitate the ZAZ style, to varying degrees of success ranging from the Wayans Brothers' more Black-focused spin on the style to the absolute hackery of Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg.

The key ingredient here is Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin in his stock comedy persona. The thing about Nielsen is that, prior to the '80s, he was known as a serious dramatic actor, and even here, he carries with him a particular type of old-fashioned leading man flair straight out of the '50s and '60s, all the better for him to play a parody of the kind of upright police officer that Jack Webb idealized in Dragnet. The thing about Nielsen is that, even when his character is in the middle of humorous situations and being made the butt of countless jokes, you can still picture him as the serious version of this character, the straightforward detective protagonist of a CBS cop drama. It's like watching David Caruso or Mark Harmon do a spoof of CSI or NCIS without once winking at the camera to let you know that they're in on the joke, even though all the humorous mishaps they get into indicate that they very much are. Nielsen was a master at this sort of humor, blending a straight-man persona with zany antics that are made that much funnier by the guy they're happening to, and this film is an ample demonstration of just why he was so good at this sort of comedy.

The machine-gun speed of the jokes, meanwhile, ensures that even the occasional groaner would quickly be forgotten once the next ten or so zingers whipped by, while the jokes that work never stick around for too long and wear out their welcome. The film's sense of humor is filthy enough for a PG-13 rating, but in a decidedly schoolboy manner, too amused by the comic slapstick it does so well to get really mean-spirited or offensive; you won't really find this movie punching down and mocking people who don't clearly deserve it. It aims its barbs upwards at authority figures, Frank most of all, and mines humor out of amusing scenes like a scared teenage student driver being forced into a car chase and turning into a legitimately badass driver, or Frank forgetting to turn off his microphone during a... private moment. There is a plot, and a host of supporting characters played by talented actors like Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalbán, and, uh, O. J. Simpson (as an LA cop!), but none of that is important, and neither are any greater themes; barring some jokes making fun of Frank's trigger-happy ways, don't expect to find much satire of real-life issues surrounding law enforcement. After all, this movie's not a satire, it's a farce, and it's interested in mining as many gut-busting laughs as it can out of as many people as it can.

The Bottom Line

The Naked Gun is another one of those quick reviews of a good comedy where there's not really much to say beyond "I laughed my ass off." Yeah, it's really funny, it still holds up, and I had a blast watching this at the Film Junkies' 35th anniversary screening. Not much more to say, except go check it out for yourself if you haven't.