The golden age of slapstick comedy/spoof movies set out by Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker never died. They just evolved into different forms through the internet, video-focused platforms like YouTube, as well as specialised comedy sites like Funny or Die. Conversely, the theatrical versions got killed off by buzzjoys like the Friedberg-Seltzer duo who thought that the entirety of spoof movies can get by with just references from the trailers they’re spoofing, not so much the movies and their core.

Gold-class comedies like Airplane! and the Naked Gun trilogy are hard to do, as they have the jokes and visual gags come in every second without much breathing room, and all of them pulled off with timing and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sort of precision and display. Thankfully, the new Naked Gun sequel took these lessons to heart, do not cater to current conventions of millenial comedy, and pay good amounts of respect to its source material while also being a joy to watch. That might end up being its detriment, but we’ll get to that later.

Spy Hard

The Naked Gun (2025) stars serious action and thriller man Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., son of infamous Police Squad lieutenant played by the late Leslie Nielsen, as he has to save his dying Police Squad group from being thwarted by a billionaire’s world-destroying plan. Said billionaire, Richard Cane (Danny Huston), is also the inventor of electric cars and all sorts of oncoming gag setups for the show. If you’re here for a serious cop show, you are sorely mistaken.

What you’ll get in this 1-and-25-minute viewing is some of the best visual gags and rapid-fire jokes, innuendoes, and wordplay responses you’ll get in a long while since, well, the previous Police Squad movie trifecta. Liam Neeson’s noir-style narration with its mix of seriousness and all-out nonsense followed by running gags that really work, along with the fact that we’ve known him in action films like Taken. To see this serious actor playing it half-straight with a dash of doltness in the wacky Naked Gun world and its logic is what cures the common non-comedy cold. Every headliner here plays their part to ridiculous aplomb, from comedy typecast Paul Walter Hauser playing the straight cop partner Ed Hocken Jr. to Pamela Anderson as the new femme fatale looking for revenge for her on-screen brother’s killer. Heck, even CCH Pounder as the chief has her moments.

It’s really hard to pick a favourite scene here due to how well they’re done and how they just keep the slapstick going, but I’ll try: there’s a scene involving a snowman that’s just off-kilter you cannot help but fall for its absurdity, and there’s also one involving a dog and a dirty oven. Typical sequences in action-packed cop shows like infiltration bits, goons-coming-at-our-heroes-for-a-brawl parts, and the chase sequences are also given the Zucker Brothers-and-Abrahams style of escalating nonsense you know and love.

The best part? There are no rehashed jokes from past Police Squad episodes and films; everything here is all done up and paced well from the writers (Dan Gregor, Doug Mand, Akiva Schaffer) and director Akiva Schaffer experienced with comedy movies but respectful enough to the source material to know what kind of gags to use.

Deadpan & Loving It

Going back to the bad part of this whole show: this is clearly a film aimed at fans of the late Leslie Nielsen and the films that made his 80s and 90s career soar. Younger audiences may get most of the gags and dialogue, but may equally groan at them and dismiss them as a “Dad Joke” compilation. That is the whole point of these classic style of comedies; you have to hand it to Paramount Pictures for taking a stab at bringing this sort of film to an era where its audience has expected tastes.

Also, not every joke lands, but there are more hits than misses jokes-wise, at least from my perspective. There is never a break in 2025’s The Naked Gun. Part reboot, part sequel, all new (but not as improved), this comedy blitz hits all the right notes while staying true to its Police Squad legacy, for good and ill. Newer and younger audiences who prefer this generation of comedy may not appreciate the old-school approach, but those above 30 will. The Zucker Bros. comedy bonanza may not be back in full force, but it is welcome time and again to remind us of a more fun and zany time when spoof movies weren’t messes-of-references. This is the kind of “lawak bodoh” film we need: one that just needs great jokes and timing, a few pop culture references of old that are kept to a minimum, and an awesome lead who makes it better because of his acting history.

Oh, and do stick around when the credits roll; the jokes don’t stop even after the ending. When’s the last time you’ve seen a comedy that took it that far?

Final Score: 80/100