Customer Reviews

The Naked Gun - From the Files of Police Squad!

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm not going to summarize the plot of this movie. Others have already done that. I'm just going to tell you I think it's one of the funniest films I've ever seen.

I love this kind of sight gag humor. And nobody does it better than Leslie Neilsen.

The Police Squad! videos are priceless TV detective show parodies. It's a pity only a handful of episodes were ever made. They're a blast to watch -- especially the end credits when the actors "freeze" yet everything else in the scene continues to move. Really dumb humor, but it gets me every time.

Which is why I love this, the first of the three Naked Gun movies. They feature the same bumbling detective (Neilsen) and the same intrepid team that created the short-lived TV series.

I can watch this film and laugh every time. My favorite scenes are the chalk outline floating on the water...the shoe shine guy to which Lt. Drebin palms money for information...and, well, I could name scene after scene.

Naked Gun is not for everyone. Not everyone likes the rapid-fire sight gag humor that makes this movie (and The Simpsons) such a joy to behold.

But if that kind of humor tickles your funny bone, Naked Gun will cause you to laugh all the way to the store to buy the other two installments.

I saw this movie at the cinema, and when I walked out of the darkened theatre my sides hurt so much from laughing you would have sworn I was suffering from appendicitis, and I rivalled Niagara Falls in my crying - the tears were just streaming down my face!

This inane, farcical comedy has got to be one of the funniest films ever released. It's silly, but the silliness is funny and not pointless. Even the cameo actors are houmourous! Leslie Nielsen is fantastic as the deadpan, very moronic Frank Drebin, a bumbling detective who wouldn't know a criminal from a saint, and George Kennedy and OJ Simpson are perfect foils for his lunacy. (I'm surprised. I said something NICE about OJ Simpson!) And Priscilla Presley has never looked better. She and Leslie Nielsen have a chemistry between them that is lacking in many serious or other comedy movies. What can I say? This movie is great! I order you to stop reading these reviews and go and rent or buy this movie! Believe me, you won't regret it!

You'll know this movie is going to be a riot from the openning sequence in which a meeting of the worlds master terrorists - including Castro, the Ayatollah and Gorbachev are folied by inept cop Frank Drebin, played with perfect deadpan expression by Leslie Nielsen, who went on to a second career starring in films like this.

Drebin, from Police Squad, must try to stop the assasination of the Queen of England. Drebin is assisted by George Kennedy, a fellow cop and O.J. Simpson as detective Nordberg. Nordberg, especially is the victim of most of Drebin's foul ups and spends most of the movie being beaten or maimed (just desserts!). Ricardo Montalban stars as the construction magnate that is masterminding the dastardly plot.

Nielsen's physical humor is the focus of the movie. His systematic destruction of Montalban's apartment is hilarious. But the highlight of the movie is the ending baseball sequence. and is where Nielsen shines. From his impersonation of opera tenor Enrico Polazzo (his butchering of the national anthem is a total classic) to his routine as a moonwalking showboat umpire, Nielsen is at his finest in milking laughs. The baseball game between the Mariners and Angels is the funniest baseball sequence ever filmed and funnier than any of the Major League movies. This segment features real-life baseball announcers including Dick Enberg and the great Mel Allen. When a highlight shows a baseball players head being knocked off by a fly ball, Allen delivers his classic "How About That?" while a stunned Enberg looks on, speechless. And there are real-life ball-players Jay Johnstone and Reggie Jackson, ("I must kill the Queen").

Priscilla Presley looks beautiful and shows her ability to do comedy. Although Nielsen looks much too old for her, the scenes between them work, probably due to Nielsen's boundless energy and little boy innocence.

The Naked Gun series follwed the Airplane movies in a line of hits for the ZAZ team (not all of them particpated in all of the films). Although the latter two Naked Gun movies were a let-down, Naked Gun shows ZAZ at their best and this movie remains funny.

Also worth noting is the TV series that inspired the Naked Gun movies - Police Squad (in color). Look for it at your video store. Underrated and very funny.

The Naked Gun-From The Files Of Police Squad. I don't need to talk about this movie. It's great. It's non-stop laughs. It's a must see. So what's the problem? The problem's not with the movie. It's with this DVD. Don't expect to much from silly Paramount, but has anyone ever watched this on cut TV, like USA, Comedy Central, or ABC? If so, you know the cutting out and editing of scenes for a certain channel tri trims a time slot, so they replace maybe 15 minutes with deleted scenes! And very funny deleted scenes I might add. One is where Frank Drebin is seen at a gym in the shower (of the woman's bathroom). Another is where Ludwig shoots Frank in the catchers's thing (didn't anyone ever notice it deflated?) and one where Frank turns off Nordberg's air at the hospital. All these scenes are outrageous and hilariously funny, but no version except the TV one has these scenes. I'm not going to buy any Naked Gun DVD until the scene's are restored. Same with Naked Gun 2, Airplane!, and Airplane 2.
Don't by this 'till Paramount realizes we want deleted scenes!

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This movie probably has the most creative and well done scene of any movie I have ever seen. And that is saying quite a statement.

Naked Gun is based on a short lived television show called Police Squad which was basicaly a spoof of Dragnet and all the old time police dramas. Everything in the tv show was slapstick and sight gags and it was well ahead of it's time. The show was funny in it's own right but some bad scheduling and the fact that you had to watch it all non stop as it was so involved lead to its downfall after a mere 6 episodes.

The Zucker brothers who produced this show and are the men behind the hillarious movie Airplane, decided to revive the short lived TV show, but this time in a movie format. And thus the Naked Gun:From the Files of Police Squad, was born.

Lt. Frank Dreben is the focus of the tv show and of this movie, he is a clueless cop (played by Leslie Nielson) who has a habit of hitting things with his car and always makes time for the women. The woman in this case is (Prisila Presley) the assistant to the would be bad guy (Ricardo Montebon) who Frank takes a liking to, after she is sent to spy on him, while the bad guy masters his plan of controling unsuspecting victims to kill people without even knowing they are under a hypnotic spell. Along for the ride is Nordburg (None other then OJ Simpson) , Franks partner who is shot early on by thugs on a drug boat which leads Frank into looking in to the main criminal in the first place. A plan to end the Queen of Englands life is soon unvailed and lets just say its a mad romp from location to location with lots of laughs mixed in.

But the thrill of this movie isn't the story, that is almost secondary and almost a little nonsensical at points. Its the fun situations that Frank seems to get into everywhere he goes. One moment he is in the mid east stopping terrorist, next he is hanging from a building as a fire burns inside and he is chasing a killer doctor in one of the wildest car chases ever. The laughs are so great in this movie that you truly can watch this many times and get just as much enjoyment from the wacky satire and one liners that are thrown at us non stop.

As mentioned above this movie does contain the best scene ever. I won't give it all away but it involves a baseball game that the Queen of England happens to be attenting and Frank Dreben must find out who the unknown killer at the game will be. The whole final scent of this movie is so priceless that I don't know if something this brillient has ever been matched in a movie. I just watched it again with my family and already we were cracking up as if we were seeing it again for the first time.

This is truly a lost art when it comes to comedy. It didn't rely on sick or gross humor but on simple slap stick and straight one liners by people who are taking their roles seriously without being in on the joke that we the viewer are in on. Even the soundtrack is catchy and well done. It's just a very complete and hillarious movie that you will want to watch many times and with many people.

If you want a funny movie, that is short enough not to drag on but funny enough that you will have to pause it to catch your breath, have I got the movie for you. Naked Gun : From the Files of Police Squad. Get it today and you will wonder how you ever got by without it. I can't recomend it enough and you won't be sorry adding this to your movie collection.

Everyone who has seen The Naked Gun knows this is a wonderfully funny movie, and a must-have for any comedy lover's DVD collection. However, as another reviewer has pointed out there are problems with the DVD version. Just casually watching the movie tonight on TV (after all i do own the DVD), i was astonished to find there were parts to the movie that i hadn't remembered seeing. After booting up my DVD of the movie and checking, i found that there were indeed quite a few scenes missing from the DVD version! The worst part is that they are good scenes!
For example, there are quite a few more exchanges in the absolutely hilarious "interrogation" of the low-life down at the docks. An equally funny moment is cut when Drebbin is inspecting Ludwig's apartment and somehow manages to get attacked by a dead animal rug.
Let's all make paramount feel as ashamed as they should be for being the only company with enough gall to actually put out a DVD with less material then what you would see on TV, and take the other reviewer's suggestion to not buy this DVD until they put the scenes back in!

In 1982, Leslie Nielsen starred in a television comedy called "Police Squad" on ABC. Not since "The Carroll Burnett Show" had television seen this kind of quality slapstick comedy. Unfortunately, it never found an audience and only lasted for 6 episodes.

In 1988, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker adapted their short-lived T.V. series into one of the best comedy movies ever. And this time, it proved to be a hit (grossing over $70 million during it's USA run).

Before starring in "Airplane" in 1980, Leslie Nielson had never done a comedy role before (all of his previous roles had been in dramas). Who knew he had such great comedic timing? And it is that timing that makes this movie so much fun to watch.

Mr. Nielson stars as Frank Drebin, an incompetent cop who somehow always manages to solve the crime (even though he sometimes sovles it wrong). Things happen when Drebin is around, such as a fire breaking out, sliding down a long table on top of Queen Elizabeth II, or going to the bathroom with a live microphone. He never means for any of these things to happen, and occasionally doesn't even know when they do.

The cast is wonderfully filled out with George Kennedy as Captain Ed Hocken and Priscilla Presley as Jane Spencer. Both of them have great comedic timing on their own, which is enhanced in the presence of Mr. Nielson. Even O.J. Simpson, who is fairly dispised by much of America these days, does a pretty good job of holding his own in this group. His scene that opens the movie is a total laugh riot.

This movie is pure slapstick comedy at its best. Every line, every shot, every move is done for laughs. Even years later, die hard "Naked Gun" fans can still find jokes and shots that they have never caught before.

If you like funny movies, especially slapstick, then this movie is a must see. Actually, it's a must see again, and again, and again, and...

THE NAKED GUN still holds up after all these years. Very funny, snappy and dead on, this movie never fails to entertain and make you laugh, and now that's it's on DVD... you can replay to your hearts content. Clean widescreen transfer of the film, excellent sound, and the best of the best, audio commentary from David Zucker (Director/Writer), Robert Weiss (Producer), Peter Tilden (Host) - which, next to GHOSTBUSTERS, is one of the funniest commentary around. Inside jokes (Davey Crockett is everywhere in this movie), insight, and just plain funny banter make this commentary great to listen to (and like the NAKED GUN movies, you can listen to it several times and come up with something new). I can't recommend this commentary enough... it's that good. So is the DVD as a whole... always worth a rental, but also an excellent addition to the your collection.

Every time I see this I only laugh harder. The part where Drebin knocks Queen Elizabeth II onto the table (see it and you'll know what I mean) kills me every time. The sequels are somewhat overdone, but this will last forever as one of the great comedies.

Not since Tracy and Hepburn have I been so moved by a cinematic romance that tugs at the old ticker. Leslie Nielson as hardworking, nose-to-the-grindstone Lt. Frank Drebin teams up with Priscilla Presley for a hunk of burning love in David Zucker's epic, THE NAKED GUN.

Presley plays Jane Spencer, who happens to be employed by evil Vincent Ludwig (Ricardo Montalban). Ludwig is the target of a criminal investigation led by Drebin--a ruthless, relentless investigation that tests the very limits of Drebin's endurance and competency--and the starry-eyed, ever innocent Jane finds herself falling head over heels. In love.

But the budding romance is derailed. Sadly, tragically, Frank's job challenges Jane's loyalties to her boss. . .to her own fragile ability to keep calling Drebin "Funny Face." And after a golden, yet fleeting, romantic interlude--complete with mustard, ketchup, Hermit's Hermits and a "nice beaver" rejoinder--we witness a romantic showdown in an Anaheim baseball stadium that ultimately will decide the shadowy fate of these two tragic lovers.

See THE NAKED GUN. You will laugh. You will cry. You will wonder if O.J. was driving a Bronco to and from the set. You will be astounded by the homeliness of British royalty. But most of all, you will be cheering for Frank and Jane, hoping beyond hope that their love will endure--at least until the next sequel.
--D. Mikels