The Naked Gun Parent Guide

For better or worse, there’s nobody in Los Angeles quite like Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) of the Police Squad, and right now, he’s exactly the man the city needs. An unusual bank robbery and a suspicious suicide lead Frank to femme fatale Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), and with her help, Frank begins to suspect local tech billionaire Richard Cane (Danny Huston) of involvement in both crimes. It becomes apparent that Cane needs something called the P.L.O.T. Device…but where Frank Drebin is involved, nothing is ever that straightforward.

I was surprised at how well this movie grabbed the zany, irreverent, unhinged style of the originals. Liam Neeson is shockingly funny in the lead and genuinely seems to be having fun – a pleasant change after watching him drag himself through half a dozen soulless action flicks in the last few years.

Funny though it may be, this film’s similarity to its cinematic ancestors makes it a tough sell for family audiences. This iteration of The Naked Gun sneaks in at a PG-13, largely because the violence is ludicrously slapstick-y and there’s little profanity. The writers saved up the negative content for a big silhouette gag – one that implies that the lead characters are having group sex with a dog, which of course they aren’t, but it’s still a graphic joke that you won’t want to explain to the kids. Most of the film’s scenes are so ludicrously over-the-top that it’s hard to take the questionable content in them seriously, but the canine caper goes several bridges too far. (Another scene of children being given beer is also off-putting but it is definitely overshadowed by the doggy do.)

If I’m being completely honest with you, I didn’t like the original much at all, so the fact that I actually laughed in this movie is nearly shocking. I wasn’t quite as entertained as the woman a few rows behind me who spent most of the film squeaking laughs like a squirrel in a nitrous oxide factory, but I didn’t want to run screaming from the theater either. You might want to do just that if you bring the kids to this one, though.

About author

Keith Hawkes

Keith Hawkes graduated from Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada with a degree in English and History. His interests are movies, American literature, science fiction, almost every kind of music, and museums. He enjoys criticizing films for fun - although he's okay with being paid for it.