Brief Story Line
Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson - The Ice Road, Retribution etc) was one of the Lieutenant in Police Squad and partnered with Ed Hocken Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser - The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Richard Jewell etc). After closing a bank robbery case, Frank was scolded by Chief Davis (CCH Pounder - The Shield TV series, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones etc) for disregarding the regulations and was assigned to another case. Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson - Barb Wire, Baywatch TV series etc) who was related to the victim wanted to assist Frank's investigation but was ultimately told to stop.
Meanwhile the case involved wealthy billionaire Richard Cane (Danny Huston - Angel Has Fallen, Hitchcock etc) with his trusted right hand man, the ruthless Sig Gustafson (Kevin Durand - Abigail, The Butterfly Effect etc) who wanted to stop Frank at all cost.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As someone who had seen the original 1988 movie and its two sequels multiple times on cable TV, I never thought that there would be another film in the franchise since the lead cast Leslie Nielsen had passed away in the year 2010. To make it even more surprising was the choosing of Liam Neeson which shocked my wife as she thought such comedic type would not be to his style. But turned out, he did pretty well in here and managed to continue his "father"'s legacy.
Anyway since we already know what to expect, we were no longer astonished by the humor, jokes and comedy that were shown multiple times. Most of them did make us laugh, though several times we were a bit bothered by few audience who were cackling even when the scene was just normal. I think the part that made me laughed the hardest was that scene involving Frank, Beth and the dog in Frank's house while for my wife it was during the time Frank trying to inflitrate the night club. There were plenty other humorous scenes including few wordplay jokes and the craziness of Frank that made us chuckled. Oh I also loved the song Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship during one of the scene in the middle. The movie even had few action scenes but not the serious kind, just enough to make it more fun.
The movie's duration was very short of 85 minutes which already included pretty long closing credits. There was a fun scene during that part and a post end credit scene but they were not some teasers for sequels. This latest film in the franchise that was pretty successful financially seemed to be well received by critics (to my surprise). Audience at least in the US looked to be enjoying this too, though not too sure if it could recoup its modest budget. It was directed by Akiva Schaffer (Hot Rod, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers etc) and written by him together with Dan Gregor (Doolittle, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend etc) and Doug Mand. I also saw the well known name Seth MacFarlane (creator of The Orville, Family Guy etc) as one of the producers. However, the original creators of Police Squad TV series that the films were based on, i.e. David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker (Airplane!, Ruthless People etc) were not involved in here.
I said above that Liam Neeson was suitable in this role with Pamela Anderson quite capable of being his counterpart. The rest of the cast were OK but it was obvious the star was Neeson. Apart from the names I mentioned, there were appearances of Liza Koshy (A Family Affair, Freakish TV series etc) as Detective Barnes, rapper Busta Rhymes as one of the bank robbers and several familiar faces in cameo roles (including a famous actor and one of the cast in the original movie though I was not aware at the time of watching). Btw few of the jokes were quite crude which would explain the 17+ rating in Indonesia, and some of them were heavily referencing things more familiar to the Americans particularly related to the popular sport.
Overall this was a very light fun comedy film that I was able to enjoy though my wife might be less so. The jokes were something that I could relate to even if few of them might be loss in translation or cultural reference. However, I am not sure if the humor would be well received universally especially to the younger generation who might not know what the original The Naked Gun was all about and probably not accustomed looking at Liam Neeson acting in this kind of film. For me though, since I like the humor, I did have a good time seeing this.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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