In today’s era of revisiting practically every franchise from the 1990s, it seemed inevitable we’d eventually get to something like The Naked Gun. Of course, I was worried about how this would go – we haven’t had a major mainstream spoof movie in years. The last one I can remember is 2013’s ill-fated Scary Movie 5, another series I hear is getting the reboot treatment soon as well. But David Zucker’s The Naked Gun films were some of my favorite comedies from my youth. I remember specifically laughing my head off with these movies at an age where I was probably understanding every fifth joke. I did some rewatching in the time leading up to today’s film, and they surprisingly hold up pretty well. And even though theoretically all the pieces were in place for a remake to really work, I kept my expectations low for co-writer/director Akiva Schaffer’s The Naked Gun. And there are few things I love more than when a movie proves me wrong.

In this reboot/sequel, Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson), like his father before him, has earned legendary status working for Los Angeles’ Police Squad, alongside his partner Ed (Paul Walter Hauser). He may not always take the conventional route to solve a case, but he has a particular skillset that has earned him a high success rate. He’s approached by Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), a beautiful, mysterious woman who is convinced her brother’s recent death, ruled as a suicide, was actually a murder. This sends Drebin on a perilous quest to get to the bottom of this case.

The Naked Gun (2025) is one of the dumbest movies I’ve seen in ages, and I mean that as a deep compliment. The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer, who previously made the hilarious Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, in retrospect, was probably the perfect person to do this. I laughed so hard, so consistently, throughout the new Naked Gun, that I’m probably going to have to see it three more times to catch all the jokes I missed. There’s such a high joke-per-minute ratio in this movie, that even if one gag doesn’t gag you, there’s another 10 right around the corner and eventually something will. But I found myself laughing very early into this film and I didn’t stop for the entire duration. The humor is supremely goofy, unapologetically silly and deeply weird. A joke rarely went where I thought it would and this film kept surprising and delighting me as a result.

Like Akiva Schaffer, I left this film realizing star Liam Neeson is probably the only person who could have done this franchise justice. Neeson’s career has kind of mimicked Leslie Nielsen’s, in that for a long time, he’s been a fixture of the action movie, and audiences have a certain set of expectations when they go into one of his movies. But Neeson, like Nielsen before him, has this biting, uncompromising sense of humor and it feels like he’s been building to this for the past several years of not-that-great action movies. Liam Neeson is absolutely hilarious here, and it’s clear from the jump he has a great understanding of the mechanics of this kind of humor, and knows how to make a joke land. Neeson is totally game for all the bizarre curveballs this script is throwing at him.

Pamela Anderson is also surprisingly hilarious in damsel in distress/possible femme fatale mode. The resurgence of Anderson’s career began in earnest last year with The Last Showgirl, which earned her some awards buzz, but I think her performance here could earn her a new reputation as a comedienne. Her performance is equally as funny and surprising as Liam Neeson’s, and the two are hilarious together. Paul Walter Hauser is also very funny here, but I wish he had a little more to do. And for years, films have cast Danny Huston as a villain, and it’s so done to death at this point, it’s unintentionally become a joke. Here, we have Danny Huston as a villain and the film, and Huston, are totally in on the joke. 

Akiva Schaffer co-wrote this script alongside Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, who previously wrote the script for the very funny Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers for Disney+, also directed by Schaffer. I’m not very familiar with these writers, I know Dan Gregor worked as a writer on the show Crazy Ex Girlfriend, which is one of my favorite TV series of the past decade. Schaffer, Gregor and Mand pack this script with so many visual gags, so many tiny jokes from all angles, and the film, almost miraculously, is able to keep up the wildly high energy level it establishes early on. We have loads of seemingly one-off gags that pay off in delightful ways later on in the movie, and like I said, I’m going to need to see this a couple more times to catch all the jokes I missed the first time because I was laughing too hard.

The spoof movie has been dead for years, but not anymore! I left The Naked Gun (2025) feeling optimistic about the theatrical studio comedy again, and that is no small feat. In an era where comedies are mostly relegated to streaming services, it’s an utter joy to be able to go into a movie theater with a bunch of strangers and laugh like this. I was also concerned the tone of the spoof movie would not land in 2025, but I realized pretty early on into this film that I couldn’t have been more wrong. I will say it could have been a little longer – without credits, the film runs under 80 minutes. But considering the zippy, relentless pacing of this humor, it was probably a smart choice to keep the runtime abbreviated. Oh, and one big thing, I had concern they’d use all the best jokes in the trailers for this movie, and that is definitely not the case. The Naked Gun is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in years, and it’s an experience you absolutely should have with a big crowd of people in a movie theater. The theatrical comedy deserves to live another day and The Naked Gun gives you lots of reasons why.