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Put your hands up! All of them! When first announced, the reboot for the iconic The Naked Gun film parody series was met with much hesitation and hostility. Then something magical happened and when we saw first look images and footage, it looked pretty damn good with Liam Neeson looking more than capable of filling the late, great Leslie Nielsen’s shoes. Nobody can ever do deadpan comedy like Nielsen, but Neesom looks more than ready to do the best job he can. Check out a rather humorous Neeson in action in the latest trailer below!
What looks to make this reboot legit is that Neeson is playing the son of Nielsen which looks to honor the original films and pay the upmost respect. Joining Neeson for this barrage of hopefully politically incorrect in your face humor are Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Liz Koshy, Danny Huston, WWE superstar Cody Rhodes, rapper Busta Rhymes. Akiva Schaffer (The Lonely Island; Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping) helms the pic and it definitely looks like he understood the assignment.
The official synopsis for The Naked Gun reads: “Only one man has the particular set of skills… to lead Police Squad and save the world! Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. follows in his father’s footsteps in The Naked Gun.”
The iconic 1988 movie was a direct spin-off to Nielsen’s 1982 Police Squad! television series which actually wasn’t the biggest of hits. Nielsen reprised his role as Detective Sergeant Frank Drebin for the movie and it became a smash hit generating two more sequels including 1991’s The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear and 1994’s Naked Gun 33 1⁄3: The Final Insult.
Parody films have ceased to endure over the last decade or so with the 80’s and 90’s crushing it with movies like Hot Shots and Hot Shots Part Deux with Charlie Sheen and my personal favorite Top Secret with Val Kilmer. There’s just something about a movie that knows what it is and makes fun of itself and other properties at the same time. Hopefully this one will resurrect the subgenre as we need good laughs these days.
Liam Neeson’s The Naked Gun is set to hit theaters on August 1st!
