Home > Movies > N > Naked Gun, The > Reviews


Rating:
In 1982, the creators of Airplane!, Jim Abrahams and brothers Jerry Zucker and David Zucker, were asked to translate the success of their disaster movie spoof into a weekly television series. The result was the inspired Police Squad!, a dead-on parody of prime-time cop dramas starring a veteran of series TV, the stone-faced Leslie Nielsen. Perhaps their aim was too accurate: viewers didn't respond to the deadpan wit, and the series was cancelled after only six episodes. But the show remained dear to the filmmakers, and six years later they reached a larger audience with the broader, full-length feature The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!. What the film version lacked in sardonic wit, it made up with a rapid-fire onslaught of jokes -- gross-out slapstick, bad puns, and pop culture references happily co-exist, often within the same shot. This brand of humor marked a shift away from the more satirical laughs of Airplane! and Police Squad!, and it would influence a slew of Saturday Night Live-derived features, as well as the no-holds-barred Farrelly brothers comedies. Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Browse More Movies:
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z