Product Details

• Actors: Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson, Robert Goulet
• Directors: David Zucker
• Writers: David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Pat Proft
• Producers: Catherine Meyers, Gil Netter, Jerry Zucker
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount Pictures
• VHS Release Date: September 23, 1997
• Run Time: 85 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302240964
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,057 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It's more of Leslie Nielsen's Lt. Frank Drebin, the bumbling cop from the old Police Squad! television series. This time, Drebin uncovers a plot--led by supervillain Robert Goulet!--to sabotage America's energy policy. The jokes don't stick as well as those of the first film (Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!), but there are some very funny slapstick moments, including several involving former First Lady Barbara Bush (played by an actress, of course). --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker

Leslie Nielsen plays Frank Drebin, a middle-aged police lieutenant whose lethal weapon is utter obliviousness. This movie-like its predecessors, the 1982 TV series "Police Squad!" and the 1988 film "The Naked Gun"-has the look of cheap, hasty television action drama. It's oblivious of production values, narrative sense, and all the higher, finer aspects of the human spirit-of everything, that is, except the impulse to spray us with jokes and knock us out of our chairs. The director, David Zucker, has a defiantly cheesy style. For him, nothing's ever too trashy or worn out to be used again; what he practices is, in the truest sense, pulp comedy. There's a hint of an environmental theme in the plot of "NG 2 1/2," but Zucker and his co-writer, Pat Proft, never allow it to slow down the picture's relentless barrage of slapstick, movie parodies, outrageous double entendres, and cracked musical production numbers. And Leslie Nielsen is inspired. He plays Drebin as a straight arrow who's finally letting go, giving in to his repressed impulses: he sings, he dances, he loves, he shoots to kill. Nielsen combines B-movie earnestness, exuberant mugging, and a trouper's slightly desperate cheerfulness: he turns this rather alarming character into a sweet, ebullient lunatic-albeit one who's hell on innocent bystanders. Also with Priscilla Presley, Robert Goulet, George Kennedy, Richard Griffiths, and O. J. Simpson. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great flick, but missing a classic scene on DVD...., June 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (DVD)

After the success of "The Naked Gun", a sequal was immediately written. After a three year interval, Drebin and Police Squad returned. The film is somewhat slow, and is definately not as good as the first. It does have some hysterical sequences and I was surprised when one was left out. When Frank and Quentin confront each other near the end, Quentin never tells Frank to stand "over there". Frank then answers "...where?" Quentin becomes distracted and points the gun to the wall. Frank takes it from him and Quentin repeats this routine on Frank. This scene appears on VHS but must have been left on the DVD cutting room floor.....

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars " She was the kind of woman who made you want to drop to your knees and thank God you were a man!", May 5, 2006

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Naked Gun 2 1/2 - The Smell of Fear (DVD)

Watching this 1991 sequel to Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad, is like opening a time capsule. A slapstick comedy/satire set in Washington, DC, during the Presidency of George H. W. Bush, the plot involves the kidnapping of Dr. Albert Meinheimer (Richard Griffiths), the President's energy czar, who wants to reduce the country's pollution and its dependence on coal, oil, and nuclear power. Working as the Public Relations Director of the Meinheimer Institute, is Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley), to whom Police Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) was once engaged (until he was found in a compromising situation with the Queen in Naked Gun I). Jane is now the lover of Quentin Hapsburg (Robert Goulet), who has planned the Meinheimer kidnapping.

Filled with sight gags, one-liners, parodies of other films, stock comedy routines, jokes hidden within the sets (a portrait of Mike Dukakis on the wall, for example), and non-stop action that runs amok, the plot is the least of director David Zucker's concerns. Lt. Drebin (Nielsen), his romance with Jane, and his constant missteps as an investigator serve as the primary focus. Goulet acts the suitably oily villain, and actors George Kennedy and O. J. Simpson, who work with Drebin, are as bumbling as he is.

In the opening scene, a Presidential reception hosted to honor Drebin by President George H. W. Bush (played by John Roarke, who is hilariously realistic), Drebin decks Barbara Bush several times (with Margery Ross, who plays the First Lady as a valiant trouper, always coming up smiling). The setting quickly changes to a strip joint, a bowling alley, and operating room, and eventually includes a bomb site, a blues bar, and a dance-reception before the chases start. Nelson and Winnie Mandela, John Sununu, and Davy Crockett have roles here, and ZsaZsa Gabor and Mel Torme appear in cameos.

The action is wild and wacky, and the gags (both verbal and visual) never cease. Love scenes add romance--or attempts at romance, since those, especially a seduction in which the two people are making a vase from wet clay in an art studio when the wheel goes out of control--are as off-the-wall as the rest of the film. Especially time-sensitive regarding O. J. Simpson, who dominates his scenes ironically in ways that he never did in 1991, when the film was made, Naked Gun 2 1/2 is a hilarious but poignant comedy--the energy problems of 1991 are, unfortunately, not all that different now. n Mary Whipple

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny as heck!, June 21, 2009

By 

Christopher Dowell - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Naked Gun 2 1/2 - The Smell of Fear (DVD)

Leslie does it again in naked Gun 2 1/2!
The 1 liners & almost cartoon-ish like props & examples in this movie will have you reeling in laughter!
I darn near pissed myself a couple of times!
Defiantely a good movie for comedy lovers!