When writing about film, I aim to approach each film without a predetermined rubric, allowing it to be a unique experience and enabling my critical response to reflect that. But with comedies such as The Naked Gun, I come with my three commandments stricken in stone, which I judge by. They are as simple as this:
Thou Shall Make Me Laugh So Hard I Worry I Peed a Little
Thyne Companions Will Quote It Endlessly At One Another
Thou Shalt Have Me Walking Away Smiling Endlessly
Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson took my commandments, smashed them over my head, and handed me a coffee for the road with how utterly perfect The Naked Gun (2025) is. Director & writer Akiva Schaffer, along with writers Doug Mand and Dan Gregor, deserve to be handed a Nobel Peace Prize for how this film could heal the divide through laughter. Along with the writing team, the film was produced by Seth McFarlane of American Dad, Ted, and The Cleveland Show fame, which also lends to the comedy seal of gold.
It is in no way a remake in my mind, but another installment in a legacy of comedy classics that the comedy of Leslie Nielsen defined. Liam Neeson carries that torch in his teeth while doing backflips in a pleated schoolgirl skirt.
Liam Neeson plays a hard-boiled cop on LA’s premier Police Squad who gets tangled in a conspiracy that could destroy the world. It’s more of a mirror to today’s action films, with direct riffs from movies like Mission: Impossible.
Writing this review isn’t easy because I try to maintain some semblance of professionalism in my writing, but with comedy, it isn’t easy. As someone who can sit with my friends and spend an entire evening just laughing, quoting Anchorman, Borat, The Other Guys, and other comedies that we have all grown up with… it isn’t an easy task. I don’t need a comedy to change the world; I need one that makes me laugh. The Naked Gun had me and nearly every other person in the theatre laughing so hard it was sometimes hard to hear the film.
Getting to experience something like that in theatres was new to me. If you can’t tell by the comedies I have listed, I am 32, so I didn’t grow up in what most would call the golden age of comedy. When the original Naked Gun films and other satirical films like Airplane dominated the box office, it’s possible that this was a common occurrence. But for me, movies haven’t been like this. But The Naked Gun is a tour de force of talent from all ends that makes it impossible not to laugh unless you’re a bad person without a funny bone.
The film’s directing and comedic writing are unmatched by anything else currently being made for the big screen. Every joke landed, no matter what school of comedy it was coming from. Whether it was a sight gag, a slapstick routine, wordplay, or just a bit of straight comedy from Neeson, it all landed with pitch-perfect execution.
I do not say this as hyperbole, but The Naked Gun deserves to win the Oscar this year for comedy. But not only that, Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson deserve the Oscars for leads for comedies as well. Neeson takes up the throne of straight comedy king from Leslie Nielsen, whose character is his father in the film. Since Neeson learned the hard way that Trix are for kids in Ted 2, I have been waiting for a movie like this. This was the vehicle to show the world that Liam Neeson has the particular set of skills to be the best comedy straight man, dare I say, of all time. His ability to do action scenes with hilarious finesse and have some of the best line delivery known to man is just something you need to see.
Pamela Anderson made me laugh so hard that I wondered if I needed to go into the mall to buy new shorts at one point. There is a scene where she tries her hand at improvisational Jazz that just hit me with the force of a thousand jet engines. It’s such a strange, silly, and absurd gag that it hit my funny bone harder than infidelity hit Oppenheimer in that one movie. She commits as much to every joke as Neeson does and delivers just as much. Both leads give performances that make them a comedy duo that studios would be dolts not to greenlight whatever they want to do next.
Paul Walter Hauser, I would go to war for you. Shit, I am still writing my review. I had another tab open for something else. Paul Walter Hauser is Neeson’s partner in the film and has some of my favorite gags in the movie. He also has a quiet approach to comedy, delivering huge jokes with a calm composure… until he doesn’t. In the climax of the film, his fight is one that had tears running down my face from laughter. It was so lovely to get a big scoop of Hauser after I felt other films this summer really underutilized a comedy powerhouse.
I am fortunate to be in the position that I am in to review films, but this is one of those times that it is legitimately killing me. Remember those commandments? None of my friends have seen the film, so I have had to keep all this comedy gold to myself, without anyone to share it with. The Naked Gun blew every expectation I had away and redefined what comedies can be in 2025. I cannot wait to talk about it with my friends until I am old and grey.
Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, and everyone involved in this film deserve their flowers.
THE NAKED GUN OSCARS SWEEP IS COMING.