In order to properly criticize David Zucker's "The Naked Gun" you must first understand that picking on the hastily written superficial plot would be missing the point. The plot can be whatever it wants to be. This movie is about sticking as many slapstick set-pieces as humanly possible in every single frame and every single moment. It's live-action Looney Tunes.
But still, what is it about? Well, it's about the incompetent and delusional police Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) who must foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. Take a time to absorb the last half of that sentence and get used to it. Sudden escalations are this movie's bread and butter. They also add up to making this one of the funniest movies ever made. And it should be, considering how much it defies any notion of continuity or just plain sense! The humor is everywhere--both up front and center represented by Debrin's cartoon-level ridiculous misadventures and in the background hidden as easy to miss Easter eggs. I am sure that on my only viewing of this I've missed some things.
Timing is everything when it comes to comedy, but director David Zucker--who also contributed to the writing--takes his fellow writers Jim Abrams and Jerry Zucker and refurbish their "Police Squad" television series into sustained humor. Every bit of it is as ridiculous as it is funny. Take the scene in which Drebin forgets to apply the hand-brake to his car which then starts running off on its own and literally blows up. Such incompetence would have him kicked off from the force, but here, it's treated like it's not out of the ordinary and the show goes on. The pace is relentless, its supposedly serious noir, only being present because stuff happens to go on at night sometimes and its dialogue punchy, unforgiving with a generous quantity of dry but smart PG-13 humor.
Yet with comedy putting itself on the pedestal of political responsibility, there is a genuine question of social innuendos and commentary. I am delighted to say there is none. While at first I found the way the movie it's bullying the Queen a supposed joke brought on by the opposing political views of the US and its UK buddy with which it has well-known history, the ending took place at a baseball game--a religion in the US, and it was as cruel to it as it was to the Queen itself. This is Zucker making it clear that the movie will harass anything for fun, including numerous terrorist leaders/organizations--pure comedy.
But still, what is it about? Well, it's about the incompetent and delusional police Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) who must foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. Take a time to absorb the last half of that sentence and get used to it. Sudden escalations are this movie's bread and butter. They also add up to making this one of the funniest movies ever made. And it should be, considering how much it defies any notion of continuity or just plain sense! The humor is everywhere--both up front and center represented by Debrin's cartoon-level ridiculous misadventures and in the background hidden as easy to miss Easter eggs. I am sure that on my only viewing of this I've missed some things.
Timing is everything when it comes to comedy, but director David Zucker--who also contributed to the writing--takes his fellow writers Jim Abrams and Jerry Zucker and refurbish their "Police Squad" television series into sustained humor. Every bit of it is as ridiculous as it is funny. Take the scene in which Drebin forgets to apply the hand-brake to his car which then starts running off on its own and literally blows up. Such incompetence would have him kicked off from the force, but here, it's treated like it's not out of the ordinary and the show goes on. The pace is relentless, its supposedly serious noir, only being present because stuff happens to go on at night sometimes and its dialogue punchy, unforgiving with a generous quantity of dry but smart PG-13 humor.
Yet with comedy putting itself on the pedestal of political responsibility, there is a genuine question of social innuendos and commentary. I am delighted to say there is none. While at first I found the way the movie it's bullying the Queen a supposed joke brought on by the opposing political views of the US and its UK buddy with which it has well-known history, the ending took place at a baseball game--a religion in the US, and it was as cruel to it as it was to the Queen itself. This is Zucker making it clear that the movie will harass anything for fun, including numerous terrorist leaders/organizations--pure comedy.