The Naked Gun (Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley) 1/2
Oh my God, this movie is funny. I've seen three Leslie Nielsen comedies recently, but The Naked Gun is easily the piece de resistance. Like good wine or a piece of cheese, it gets better with age; a kamikaze ride through the bowels of cheap gags, double entendres, and downright silliness.
On watching it again, I'd forgotten just how tight the picture truly is. None of the scenes are long -- with the possible exception of the splendid major league baseball game in the final act -- and it's constructed so that you literally have to stop the movie every so often because there just isn't enough time to laugh at all the jokes. It's because the directing/writing team of Abrahams/Zucker/Zucker had the tried and true TV episodes of Police Squad! to draw on. Fans of the short-lived series may be disappointed that a few of the jokes are repeated in the film, but it's a small price to pay for the richness of all the others that are included.
Leslie Nielsen plays Lt. Frank Drebin, a man assigned to investigate the shooting of one of his fellow officers (O.J. Simpson, in a brutally riotous physical turn from start to finish). Nielsen is such a joy to watch here, as one of the most inept, but lovable, klutzes ever created. His facial expressions and his near gravelly baritone voice are perfectly suited to each scene. Priscilla Presley is his goofy girlfriend Jane, and she's just as clumsy but endearing. Her boss is played by Ricardo Montalban, a wealthy man who spearheads a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. There's also knee-slapping sequences with George Kennedy, Reggie Jackson, and even "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Among the best scenes in the movie are Drebin's trip to the bathroom after a press conference, his botched break-and-enter operation, a high-speed chase in a driver's ed vehicle, and a pathetic attempt to get through the Star-Spangled Banner as a famous opera singer. Then there's the Herman's Hermits montage of a couple in love, a diplomatic visit to Beirut that turns into chaos, and Ricardo Montalban getting run over by a bulldozer, then stepped on by a full marching band. I'm only scratching the surface here.
Films like the Naked Gun should have a few warnings on the back of the video before you play it. Viewers should use the bathroom before watching, have their thumbs near the VCR Pause button at all times, and perhaps even Kleenex in case tears start streaming from excessive laughter. Think I'm exaggerating? Well, maybe the constant laughs of one man don't amount to a hill of beans. But this is my hill. And these are my beans.
