The Naked Gun (2025) Review: Pseudo-Classic Comedy Film Restores Hollywood's Hilarity

 

Copyright © Paramount Pictures, Fuzzy Door Productions

Title: The Naked Gun
Director: Akiva Schaffer

Based on: Police Squad! by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker

Release Date: August 1, 2025

    We are at a point where spoof comedies are coming back to life. Look, we have rom-coms, holiday comedies, and plain comedies that nobody will even care about seeing. It may not be good at first, but the reviews were really convincing. Today's movie is the 2025 Naked Gun, the legacy sequel of the titular franchise. Other than gaining a moderate box office success of $102.1 million against a budget of $42 million, it gained positive critic reviews, thanks to its high jokes and cast performances. Audiences were also delighted to praise its combination of humor and fighting. For bringing back slapstick that screams classic, The Naked Gun successfully hits the funny bone that Hollywood was missing all along.

Summary

   "Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr becomes a police officer like his legendary father and must save the police department from shutting down by solving a case." - Google

Reasons

    The Frank-ly impressive qualities of The Naked Gun are the dumb humor, awesome performances, and nostalgic format. Well, the movie is supposed to be funny on purpose, so the jokes are the biggest highlight for this review. Instead of making tedious sexual gags or excessive toilet humor, it takes back jokes from the 80s to adapt into the 2020s. This movie has everything, like dialogue gags, slapstick, character-driven comedy, and even fourth-wall breaks, and it turns out that most of them were funny, actually. Other than impressive humor, the performances are great. Liam Neeson, a veteran actor playing as the new Frank Drebin, maintains a straight face while delivering absurd dialogue simultaneously. Even the other actors, like Pamela Anderson (as Beth Davenport) and Danny Huston (as Richard Cane), were also hilariously great. Being another part of the movie's charm, the nostalgic format works perfectly. This goes to the sound design, editing, humor, and even a few plot points used. It is a legacy sequel of an 80s cop parody franchise, so it is trying to be like one, even if the movie is technically released in a time after COVID. 
    Other Frank-ly impressive qualities are the quick pacing, faithful representation, and solid character chemistry. This movie's runtime, standing at 1 hour and 25 minutes, is easy to consume, which is under the norm for Hollywood's films nowadays. Although it is meant to be a funny movie, it does not overstay its welcome with bad filler or prolonged fighting. In a way, it gets the story done with already, while delivering jokes for a better experience of the investigation. Next, the movie is faithful to its franchise. This sequel does not just maintain the 80s comedy format, but it also retains the references and narratives from the original films. Even if someone has never watched the TV show or any of the original films, it can serve as an introduction. For the final good touch, the character chemistry is solid. Frank and Beth's relationship is a cliche that was told in an essential way. His interactions with the other characters were also fun.
    Sure, The Naked Gun is a silly ride for the dummies, but the Deblin disasters are the second half, a few unfunny jokes, and logic issues. I mean, the story is what's the most important for every movie, but the second half is where the fun stops a little bit. This is where the jokes are running dry when its purpose is to deliver rapid-fire jokes and investigate the case simultaneously. Other than that, a few jokes were pretty unfunny. At times, the jokes would be forced instead of serving significance to the investigation. Finally, it has a few logic issues, mainly when it comes to the characters hiding things in fights. While most of the absurdity works, it can be taken to the extreme, which can lead to us asking, "What did this character do to successfully make them dumb?"

Conclusion

    The Naked Gun is a solid cop parody that restores the jokes and absurdity Hollywood has lost. From someone who has never watched Police Squad or any of the original Naked Gun films, the movie did manage a lot of laughs, even though it may not be a cup of tea for me. Yes, Paramount may have lost their animation charm, but they still get things right with comedies. Unlike those raunchy comedies or edgy action comedies, this one brings back the parodies. If you like watching movies on Paramount+, check this out.

    Score: 7.5/10 (20 years for man's laughter.)