I watched The Naked Gun 2025.
WAS I ENTERTAINED?
Vaguely.
WHAT WORKED FOR ME?
It looks and acts like a movie and it’s competently made for something that looks and acts like a movie.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME?
The story was uninteresting. I sat and watched it all the way through and I was never invested in the story. The premise of the story is solid enough, but there’s something missing in the actual storytelling. It somehow managed to defy interest.
The humor fell flat. Not only did it fall flat, it was shoved from behind by a martial arts expert. It had all the ridiculousness of the Leslie Nielsen era but it lacked the heart and the charm of the Leslie Nielsen era, and I think I know why;
The original The Naked Gun was a feature film continuation of the short-lived TV series Police Squad!, which itself was inspired by Leslie Nielsen’s performance in the movie Airplane! As a result the writing for both Police Squad! and The Naked Gun were tailored to Leslie Nielsen’s performance and it worked beautifully.
In The Naked Gun 2025 it feels like the writing is trying to be tailored to Leslie Nielsen’s performance yet forcibly inserted into Liam Neeson’s performance. Liam Neeson would be better served channeling Liam Neeson rather than Channeling Leslie Nielsen. The result is something that just doesn’t seem to fit quite right.
I should also mention the wasted opportunity, and idiotic habit, of using the title of the original as the title of the modern rehash. It would have been a better decision to follow the spirit of the naming convention of the original films: The Naked Gun, The Naked Gun 2 ½, The Naked Gun 33 1/3, with this latest entry coming in as The Naked Gun Junior, which would also be appropriate considering a minor story point.
WOULD I RECOMMEND?
Sadly, no.
Like so many other modern rehashes it merely serves to drag down and soil that which came before.
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