And here comes the final opus of the "Naked Gun" trilogy, certainly not the best but not the naked emperor I expected it to be. Anyway without further delay I'd like to retract two wrong statements I've made in my review of the second film "Smell of Fear", the inspiration was still on in the final opus though not on par with the original, and this is not a ZAZ comedy but only David Zucker took part of the project... and that might be why the film isn't as hilarious as the first. And I mean quantitatively.
What made the first film such a classic is that you couldn't keep tracks on the gags, visual, verbal, slapstick, they were thrown at our faces like custard pies and just when we wiped the cream out of our face, we had a second service. Gags were delivered at such a rhythm the film asked for at least a second watching, the sequel was almost as prolific, but "The Final Insult" is more dietetic so to speak and allows us to catch our breath so many times it gets frustrating. For instance, there's a whole sequence where Frank and Jane talk about their couple problems with a psychiatric (played by the inevitable Earl Boen) Frank admits both his impotence and frigidity, it's quite funny actually but the line is something that would belong to a Woody Allen film.
So, if you set yourself for belly laughs, get ready for a hilarious spoof of the iconic Potemkin-homage stairs scene from "The Untouchables" where the number of baby carriages having to be taken up or down just defies the odds. There is also a funny flashback where we see Frank, Ed and Nordberg as middle-aged men in the 70s with hilarious hairstyles, also a long prison sequence spoofing "Escape from Alcatraz" and various prison movies where you might enjoy the shower sequence or the riot (though that part gets a tad too long). These moments all deliver the laughs we long for, but it's only once the film gets to the Oscar sequences that it surpasses "Smell of Fear" and equals the baseball climax of the 1988 original.
The Oscar sequence gives its full meaning to the "final insult" title and is the logical conclusion of a movie series that kept on mocking clichés and tropes made in Hollywood. The Zucker team is back and with a vengeance, mocking the prestige movies that begs for Oscars, biopics, musicals, or both (with a Mother Teresa hilarious singing sequence) and movies about inspiring and courageous women overcoming adversity in the backdrop of historical disasters (including sports seasons) it's quite a deserved blow against these so-called dramas that end up for the most part forgotten by the general public or remembered for what they were: Oscar baits... and only by geeks. Watching these parts and the real-life actors who made cameos (Pia Zadora, Dukakis, Jones etc.) and kept straight faces at Drebin's shenanigans made the film. Honorable mention to Raquel Welsh, 1994 was quite a year for her, and you know which other shining moment I'm referring to.
Anyway, I wish a movie today would make of Hollywood's pompous tendencies like "Final Insult" did. But the film isn't without its flaws though, O.J. Simpson as Nordberg is too goofy it breaks the continuity and Anna Nicole Smith never goes beyond the over-played sexiness she's relegated to, for a film that makes a nod to "Thelma and Louise", the shallow treatment of Smth's role is puzzling... both Smith and Simpson won Razzies for their roles, and their infamous fates give an eerie taste to the film. I also thought the anti-Arab jokes were getting a bit old, it's one thing to have an Arab terrorist looking like Arafat and ululating when he's shot, but what was the point of the secondary antagonist? Oh well, I guess he film is a product of its time, not that things have changed much...
By the way, I just realized it's not even Zucker who made the film but Peter Segal, that too doesn't change my opinion toward the film... and the film features the most epic face-palm in the history of cinema...
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