It isn’t easy to bring back a franchise. Especially a comedic one. Some don’t age well, jokes wise. Others are just a product of their time. And then there is the Naked Gun.
Originally led by Leslie Nielsen, the Naked Gun movies were known for being absurd. Luckily, absurd jokes are still absolutely hilarious which makes the 2025 take on the franchise one of the funniest movies in recent history. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) is following in his father’s footsteps and is part of the Los Angeles Police Squad.
He’s joined by Ed Hocken Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser) and more of the second generation of the original Police Squad crew to tackle a new kind of bad. The thing is: This movie is just funny. It’s as simple as that. If you thought the trailer was funny, that’s literally just the start.
Any reservations I had about bringing back The Naked Gun franchise were thrown out the door the minute I watched an extended sequence of a bank robbery that had a nod to the Mission: Impossible franchise. Every moment of this reimagining of the franchise is unique and isn’t trying to make fun of the original movies or be like them to a T. It is a celebration of what made the Leslie Nielsen films so fun.
How I have missed studio comedies
We used to have a new comedy at least once a month. Now, it feels like we are lucky if what I would classify as a “fun dumb” comedy comes out once a YEAR. What The Naked Gun does is take us back to the idea of just having fun with a movie. Yes, Frank has a mystery to solve and he has his damsel in Beth (Pamala Anderson) but the movie as a whole knows when to allow the audience to just laugh.
It helps that director and co-writer Akiva Schaffer helped shape an entire generation of comedy fans’ kind of humor. And his work with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand clearly comes from a place of love. Not once did I think that these three had anything but love for The Naked Gun franchise.
And that’s what made it so special for me. Those who made the movie were people who did so out of love for this franchise and love for comedy.
It’s hard to pick one sequence to love. Any movie that sort of references the film Jack Frost is my kind of movie. But I do think that The Naked Gun is a perfect example of how you can not only successfully revive a franchise but also how you can make absurd, weird comedies without isolating your audience.
For a comedy I was not excited about at the start of the year, The Naked Gun is one of my favorite movies of 2025. It is just what I have been missing with comedies and if it allows us back into the world of Frank Drebin and the Police Squad, I am more than happy to come back to this franchise time and time again.
The Naked Gun hits theaters on August 1.
(featured image: Paramount Pictures)
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