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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hysterical From Start to Finish, November 6, 2001
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.
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