It's a bit difficult to review a Naked Gun film objectively, without getting side-tracked into talking about all the little things that I find funny about this film. It is said that a comedy is the hardest type of script to write, so I take my hat off to the writers of Naked Gun 2 1/2. I don't know how they have the creative power to generate so much visual humour.
Naked Gun 2 1/2 - as with all the Naked Gun films - is as much about the spoken lines as it is the visual comedy, which is particularly thick on the ground. Catastrophe and disaster follow Frank Drebin like a shadow - especially in the opening sequence when he slams a door in the face of Mrs. Bush twice, before causing her to hit her head on the table as he holds a chair out at a dinner party. There is a lot worth looking out for in this film that is imaginative particularly because it is incidental - the contorted chalk outlines on the floor of a crime scene, Jane wringing her handkerchief out into a practically full bucket, the background as Frank drives through "Little Italy", the discussion about boxing and the woman taking a shower behind his office door are all priceless.
The reason why I think Leslie Nielsen pulls off the character of Frank Drebin so fantastically well is his incredible facial expressions - they truly make his character. His incompetence is breathtaking and yet also breathtakingly funny - when he's in a group of three people wearing hard hats, his is the only one that manages to fall off and become mangled in machinery. He can't even manage to get the trouser section of a wetsuit on without difficulty. He has a fight with an intruder that involves a hairdryer and an electric toothbrush.
I also love the number of spoofs you can find in this film - the ship Hapsburg Valdez, Dr. Meinheimer's ET moment as he is catapulted through the sky, the parody of the famous scene from Ghost - and the losers' bar sequence with the incredibly depressing cabaret singer is just inspired. It takes a lot of talent to write comedy and parody, and Naked Gun is proof that when it's well done, it can be fantastic.
Naked Gun 2 1/2 - as with all the Naked Gun films - is as much about the spoken lines as it is the visual comedy, which is particularly thick on the ground. Catastrophe and disaster follow Frank Drebin like a shadow - especially in the opening sequence when he slams a door in the face of Mrs. Bush twice, before causing her to hit her head on the table as he holds a chair out at a dinner party. There is a lot worth looking out for in this film that is imaginative particularly because it is incidental - the contorted chalk outlines on the floor of a crime scene, Jane wringing her handkerchief out into a practically full bucket, the background as Frank drives through "Little Italy", the discussion about boxing and the woman taking a shower behind his office door are all priceless.
The reason why I think Leslie Nielsen pulls off the character of Frank Drebin so fantastically well is his incredible facial expressions - they truly make his character. His incompetence is breathtaking and yet also breathtakingly funny - when he's in a group of three people wearing hard hats, his is the only one that manages to fall off and become mangled in machinery. He can't even manage to get the trouser section of a wetsuit on without difficulty. He has a fight with an intruder that involves a hairdryer and an electric toothbrush.
I also love the number of spoofs you can find in this film - the ship Hapsburg Valdez, Dr. Meinheimer's ET moment as he is catapulted through the sky, the parody of the famous scene from Ghost - and the losers' bar sequence with the incredibly depressing cabaret singer is just inspired. It takes a lot of talent to write comedy and parody, and Naked Gun is proof that when it's well done, it can be fantastic.