It’s a travesty, in my opinion, that popular comedies are becoming less and less common in theaters. The studios have mostly pushed comedy to the realms of TV and streaming in the post-pandemic period, assuming that viewers will only purchase tickets for blockbusters and horror films.
Therefore, it’s encouraging that The Naked Gun, a long-awaited remake of the late 1980s and early 1990s Police Squad parodies starring Leslie Nielsen, has finally arrived in theaters. Even more encouraging is the fact that the new film preserves more of the essence of its predecessors than I would have imagined, including the fast-paced jokes, silly slapstick, and non-sequitur nonsense.
It features Liam Neeson, which is amusing in and of itself considering how much that sounds like Leslie Nielsen. Neeson, who has been redefining himself as an action star for the majority of the last ten years, plays Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., who is, in fact, the son of Nielsen’s Lt. Frank Drebin Sr.
Drebin Jr., who works for the LAPD’s prestigious Police Squad branch, is just as much of a fumbling embarrassment as his father. He quickly becomes entangled in a joyfully absurd story involving a bank heist, a dead body, and a nasty billionaire who runs an electric car firm (played by Danny Huston) with his sidekick, Capt. Ed Hocken Jr. (played by a very good Paul Walter Hauser). There are more details that make fun of the headlines of today. In order to set up an extended chili-dog flatulence gag, which I probably laughed at more than I should have, this Drebin is required to wear a body camera.
The comedic group The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer directed and co-wrote the film. Even while he’s bringing it up, he stays fairly true to the original Naked Gun template, as evidenced by his brief mention of O.J. Simpson, who appears in all three of the previous movies.
Pamela Anderson, who plays crime author Beth Davenport, plays Drebin’s love interest in the part of Priscilla Presley. Here, Anderson is fantastic, whether she’s gamely engaging in some obscene innuendo involving Neeson and a turkey baster or scatting up a storm at a nightclub. Not to mention the envious murderer snowman who attempts to ruin Drebin and Beth’s developing romance. It must be seen to be believed, so don’t worry, I haven’t revealed anything.
The Naked Gun is hardly the first recent comedy set in Los Angeles that attempts to bring back a long-running comic franchise. Unfortunately, Friday isn’t quite as popular. It is a follow-up to the fantastic 2003 film Freaky Friday, which was a remake of the 1976 comedy of the same name and was directed by Nisha Ganatra.
Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis portrayed Tess and Anna Coleman in the 2003 movie, a therapist and her adolescent daughter who suddenly switched bodies and thus developed a deeper love for one another. On Friday, both actors make a comeback in Freakier.
Lohan’s Anna is a music manager and a single mother with a stubborn teenage daughter of her own, while Curtis’ Tess is still having fun as a therapist who now works as a podcaster part-time. Julia Butters does a good job portraying Harper. Anna is engaged to a handsome Brit named Eric, who has a teenage daughter named Lily, Sophia Hammons, whom Harper finds intolerable. Their family is set to grow.
In addition to the otherworldly antics, the setting is horribly complicated: Tess switches bodies with her future step-granddaughter, Lily, and Anna ends up swapping places with her daughter Harper for reasons too painful to describe. There is a great deal of screaming mayhem as a result, such as when the four leads gaze in the mirror and gasp at their changes.
The two stars in Freaky Friday were well balanced: Lohan, who was in her teens at the time, played a fantastically controlling mother figure, and Curtis, who was back in her teens, produced one of her best and most creative performances to date.
However, in Friday, the second time isn’t the charm. Having four out-of-body experiences instead of two merely dilutes the comedic effect, far from doubling the fun. The ageist gags directed at Curtis in particular become monotonous very quickly, and she seems to be caught in the one-note, exaggerated form of Everything Everywhere All at Once.
But Lohan is a another matter. Her return to Freaky Friday, one of the movies that catapulted her to stardom before years of personal hardships put a dent in her career, is heartwarming. Her witty demeanor and humorous timing have not diminished, but there is also another factor at play here: She gets to both accept and deceive the passing of time because she is now portraying a youngster stuck in a 39-year-old body. Even though you may not always agree with the film in which she appears, Lohan is a pleasure to watch.
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