The Naked Gun - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Naked Gun



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
After watching Ted 2 and A Million Ways to Die in the West, we all realized that Liam Neeson had some great deadpan comedy skills, and many of us wanted to see more of that. So what better way to introduce Liam Neeson to his first leading role in a straight-up comedy than doing a sequel to Leslie Nielsen’s famous Naked Gun trilogy. In an era where Hollywood comedies are getting rarer and rarer by the day, The Naked Gun blasts onto the scene with the subtlety of a banana cream pie to the face, and the humor of a 12-year-old kid (in a good way). It starts to run out of steam in the third act, but boy, is it nice to see a big-budget comedy once more.

Directed by Akiva Schaffer of “The Lonely Island”, The Naked Gun is part reboot, part sequel to the classic Nielsen films, and while it certainly tries to imitate some of the gags, it forges its own path in the same vein as the originals. Liam Neeson is Frank Drebin Jr., and he’s back in the new Police Squad, solving crimes and generally being an idiot. The story (such as it is, as the plot is more about gags than it is narrative) involves Frank Jr. investigating a tech billionaire named Richard Cane (Danny Huston) after he promises to investigate the murder of blonde bombshell Beth Davenport’s (Pamela Anderson) brother. As is the case with any Naked Gun movie, the plot is simply there to give the gags purpose and direction; otherwise, it’s simply superfluous (which the film winks and nods at, even naming the electronic device stolen at the beginning of the film the “P.LO.T. device”).

The Naked Gun is a hilariously silly affair, with Liam Neeson having a ball with his chance to play as the son of the late great Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin. Instead of copying or cloning Leslie Nielsen’s delivery, Neeson makes it his own, acting as if he’s in the middle of the Taken universe, acting as if the entire world has gone insane around him (while everyone looks AT Frank is thinking the same thing). He growls and snarls into the camera while tossing his coffee on the floor, running into walls, and even dressing as a 9-year-old schoolgirl in an effort to sneak into a bank robbery. Yeah, you guessed it, there’s not a whole lot to dissect here, but rather just roll along with the physical gags and laugh yourself silly.

The best thing about the film is that it is absolutely crammed to the gills with gags and jokes. Schaffer and his writing crew were on fire for the most part, and live by the philosophy of “If a joke falls flat, just make sure there’s another joke right behind it so the audience won’t notice”. And it works for the most part. I noticed a few jokes that were pretty bland the second time true, but the rapid-fire approach to the humor keeps the audience moving so quickly that they don’t have time to sit and ruminate on it, as they just get swept along the raging river of gags. My only complaint is that the film felt like it lost some of its steam in the third act. As if the gag was strung along too long and the writers had a hard time keeping up that cocaine fueled speed up for the entire time. It’s as if the joke goes on a little too long, like an SNL skit stretched out into a feature film (even at 85 minutes). The ending is kind of mediocre, but it still has enough punch to it to keep the audience engaged for the most part.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for some creature violence/action.





Video:

Paramount’s 2.39:1 framed Blu-ray looks fantastic in 1080, and even though it’s not the 4K UHD disc, the film certainly looks great. Digitally glossy, it screams high production and looks like a million bucks (most likely many millions of bucks). Fine details are superb, with the night shots of Richard Cane’s lair looking sparkly and clean as a whistle, while the inside of Police Squad headquarters has a more weathered and hazy look, taking you back to the 1980s and 90s vibe. Overall clarity is sharp as a tack, and black levels are superb. My only complaint is that some of those dusty brown Police Squad shots looked out of place compared to the more modern day scenes in the rest of the movie, and it felt a bit distracting. But overall, this is a great-looking encode.









Audio:

Featuring the same Atmos track as the 4K UHD disc, The Naked Gun sounds amazing. Vocals are crisp and clean as expected, with great presence up in the front of the room for many of the gags. The film moves at the speed of light, switching us from a dialogue-centric scene to Frank shooting up a room full of baddies at a moment’s notice. That opening scene with the bank and Pam Anderson’s little impromptu “song” is probably the highlight of the film. Surround activity is pounding hot, and the LFE even gets a really good workout during the film. It’s a comedy, but one that basically revs the engine up to red line levels and then takes off the brakes and lets it go pell-mell.









Extras:

• A Legacy of Laughter
• Son of a (Naked) Gun
• On Set of a Set Within a Set that’s in a Set
• The Funny Femme Fatale
• The Really Unusual Suspects
• Dropping the Balls
• Outtakes Montage
• Deleted and Extended Scenes

Final Score:

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The Naked Gun is a fun bit of escapist fare that hearkens back to the '80s and '90s when comedies like this were all over. And as a fan of Hollywood comedies making a comeback, I’m ecstatic that we’re seeing the needle move on the market just a bit, so that we can start enjoying theatrical comedies once again. The Blu-ray looks and sounds great, with a moderate array of extras on board the Blu-ray as well. If you’re a fan of slapstick, gag-oriented humor, then this is a blast.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Danny Huston, Kevin Durand
Directed by: Akiva Schaffer
Written by: Dan Gregor, Doug Mand, Akiva Schaffer
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), Czech, French (Canadian), French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin) DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English, English SDH, Cantonese, Mandarin, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, French (Canadian), German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Slovakian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), Swedish, Thai, and Turkish
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 85 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 11th, 2025

Recommendation: Fun Watch

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[Asere]

Fun it was. Thanks for the review!