The Naked Gun (2025)

Watching The Naked Gun (2025) feels a bit like bumping into an old school friend at the shops. There’s that initial flash of recognition, some awkward small talk, and then you remember why you don’t catch up more often. Director Akiva Schaffer’s attempt to resurrect the beloved Police Squad universe with Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. isn’t terrible. It’s just not particularly good either.

The film sticks to what worked before: rapid-fire sight gags, deadpan wordplay, and slapstick that made Leslie Nielsen’s trilogy such a hit. Neeson does his best with the material, and there are moments where his natural intensity bumping up against silly dialogue actually works. His confusion over Miranda rights versus Sex and the City characters gets a laugh. But these moments feel scattered rather than building to something bigger.

Here’s the thing though. The original films had this wild, unpredictable energy that felt genuinely anarchic. This version feels like it was assembled by committee, with jokes arriving every thirty seconds whether they earn their place or not. Schaffer and writers Dan Gregor and Doug Mand clearly understand the formula. They just can’t seem to capture why it mattered.

Pamela Anderson brings some life to proceedings as crime novelist Beth Davenport. She’s particularly good in a nightclub sequence that briefly recaptures some of the originals’ chaos. But she’s working within a framework that seems nervous about pushing boundaries. The whole thing feels safe in a way the originals never did.

Paul Walter Hauser and the supporting cast do their jobs competently. Nobody phones it in. But competent isn’t really what this kind of comedy needs. It needs someone willing to commit to complete absurdity.

The plot involves a tech billionaire planning to turn everyone into animals via smartphone manipulation. Given our current relationship with technology, this should write itself. Instead, it feels like a missed opportunity. The satire stays surface-level when it could dig deeper into our digital obsessions.

This points to something larger about contemporary comedy. The original trilogy emerged when audiences shared more cultural touchstones and when comedy could be more reckless. Today’s landscape is different. The Naked Gun (2025) seems caught between honouring its roots and meeting modern expectations. The result satisfies neither.

At 85 minutes, the film doesn’t outstay its welcome. This works in its favour, but also highlights how much potential goes unrealised. Scenes that should build to inspired madness instead settle for mild amusement. There’s a lack of confidence that shows.

Technically, everything functions as it should. Lorne Balfe’s score does its job without being memorable. The production design captures the look without adding personality. It’s professional filmmaking serving a concept that needed more ambition.

The frustrating part is that glimpses of genuine wit do surface. Neeson’s committed performance and some cleverly constructed visual gags hint at what could have been. These moments make the mediocrity elsewhere more disappointing.

There are bigger questions here about spoof comedy’s place in our current moment. When reality regularly produces events that would’ve seemed like Naked Gun sketches thirty years ago, what’s left to parody? The film doesn’t really engage with this challenge.

For undemanding entertainment, The Naked Gun (2025) delivers enough laughs to justify the ticket price. The cast commits fully, and there are worse ways to spend 85 minutes. But anyone hoping for something approaching the originals’ inspired lunacy will leave disappointed.

In a landscape where theatrical comedies have become endangered species, there’s something admirable about this film’s existence. It represents an honest attempt to revive a dormant genre. The execution just doesn’t match the ambition. Like its bumbling protagonist, the film’s heart is in the right place. Unfortunately, that’s not quite enough.