The Naked Gun (2025) Dir. Akiva Schaffer

31 years after Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, a reboot sees the infamous Lt. Frank Drebin Junior and the police squad, uncovering the mystery behind a suspicious death in Miami. Going from one disaster to another, Frank takes on electric cars, a love interest, and an evil CEO.

When a reboot to The Naked Gun franchise was announced it was safe to say that there were many sceptics. We’ve seen this sort of thing happen many times in Hollywood in the past couple years. A sacred and beloved comedy franchise gets brought back many years later to divisive reviews. In recent memory we have seen this happen to Bill and Ted, Beverley Hills Cop, and most recently Happy Gilmore.

But The Naked Gun (2025) manages to pull off what the other comedy film reboots couldn’t. The Naked Gun (2025) manages to carve its own identity as well as staying true to what the core of the franchise is. In addition, it is also really funny. A true laugh a minute comedy, full of visual and spoken word gags that are very memorable.

This film is a different vibe to the rest of the movies in the franchise. Instead of being a wacky slapstick comedy, I feel this movie tries to be more of a homage to early 2000’s action films and opting for more deadpan humour instead of slapstick. I certainly expected something much different going into this film. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Even though I would have liked a more slapstick approach, that humour is still in there on occasion, and the avenue they go down is still very effective. Just don’t go into this film expecting another Naked Gun film with the same vibes as the originals.

Liam Neeson shines as the leading man in this comedy. He really nails the tone that the film is going for. Theres definitely a sense of intertextuality with this role and why Neeson was perfectly casted. Previously his most iconic roles stem from films like Taken, where he plays a grizzled grounded action star. Taking those ideas a placing him in a Naked Gun comedy is genius. Whilst he doesn’t have as much comical prowess as the late great Leslie Nielsen, Liam Neeson still gives a superb comical performance that could be described as a career best.

Pamala Anderson fresh off the heels of a best actress nomination at the golden globes for her role in The Last Showgirl, provides what I think is the highlight performance. I would even go as far as to say she was better than her predecessor Priscilla Presley. Anderson manages to simultaneously be serious and other worldly, really taking advantage of working inside a comedy and showing off her acting skills. On top of all of that the two leads also have fantastic chemistry together. Which is probably down to recent reports of the two dating, as a result of filming together on set.

This film also has a really fast runtime of just 85 minutes, making it one of the shortest mainstream films released this year. But they use this to its advantage allowing the film to have no dull moments, maximising entertainment and hilarity. Some of the jokes in this film are guaranteed to make most people in the cinema laugh out loud.

I’ll end my review by saying this. Comedy films such as this are really struggling. Less and less comedy films are releasing every year post covid and most of these kinds of films are getting chucked onto streaming services. It’s great that big blockbusters such as Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps are thriving, but comedies such as The Naked Gun (2025) are also vital in bringing back casual audiences to the cinema. If you care about films or the cinema experience, then go and see this film. Show the big studios that the cinema experience matters for all genres, not just the big franchises.

★★★½

3.5 / 5

Jacob Holmes

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