Movies: The Naked Gun (2025)
Silly Liam Neeson comedy elicits laughter
Liam Neeson is one of my favorite actors. He’s the whole reason I laughed when I watched the trailer for The Naked Gun, a new comedy I would otherwise not have been interested in watching. The spoof reboot originated with a cancelled television series decades ago that spawned a spoof comedy film series featuring Leslie Nielsen and the Butcher of Brentwood then known as O.J. Simpson.
Mr. Neeson, whose remarkable career includes performances as Jean Valjean in an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and as a Nazi in the underestimated Shining Through with Melanie Griffith as a Jewish spy, is one of Hollywood’s few leading actors to sport seriousness as a virtue in a range of roles. This is part of what makes Naked Gun, which I watched with a date during its opening weekend, humorous.
The plot is simple and clear, such as it is. Toilet humor aside, the relatively fresh comedy plays against Liam Neeson’s persona without degrading everything. Pamela Anderson costars as the femme fatale and love interest. Jokes are silly, though more clever than other movies in this genre, and Naked Gun points less to sight gags than to the relatively benign. The audience, which packed the theater, laughed. I know I did. Some of this is a function of our times—comedy has taken a hit in today’s beleaguered, woke culture, which stifles people’s willingness and ability to laugh with lightness—and, like Tyler Perry’s Madea drag movies, this absurdist movie franchise holds limited appeal. Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing Liam Neeson on screen again and his pairing with Miss Anderson, whose scene as a jazz singer performing scat is Naked Gun’s most original moment, made me laugh, smile and enjoy the break.