In 1980, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jim Zucker created the legendary movie ‘Airplane!’ It was a slapstick comedy that made fun of various airplane disaster movies.

Before ‘Airplane’, they created ‘Kentucky Fried Movie’ and ‘Top Secret’ with the late Val Kilmer. It was ‘Airplane’ that put them on the map and created this classic. I won’t even talk about ‘Airplane II: The Sequel’ which they didn’t direct.

8 years after ‘Airplane’, the trio created another classic film ‘The Naked Gun’ starring Leslie Nielsen who also starred in ‘Airplane’. ‘The Naked Gun’ was another slapstick comedy that created 2 sequel movies. They were hilarious and Nielsen’s acting as the bumbling Frank Drebin was just classic.

31 years after the last Naked Gun film (Naked Gun 33 1/3), in typical Hollywood fashion, a new Naked Gun movie was made and released. I say typical Hollywood fashion because Hollywood lacks originality now and is constantly remaking films or creating sequels. These studios simply can’t leave classic movies be and be more original.

Anyway, the new Naked Gun film was not a reboot but a continuation. When I first heard about it, I immediately said nope. It’s going to suck. Then when I heard Liam Neeson was playing Frank Drebin Jr, my opinion of the upcoming film didn’t change. It’s nothing against Neeson but he’s not a comedic actor especially in a slapstick type format. Maybe people said the same thing about Leslie Nielsen who wasn’t always a comedic actor.

Once the trailer came out, my opinion didn’t change much but once it was released and I began reading the reviews, there were some some decent reviews. Maybe I might spend the money to go watch it. Well, that never happened but the movie finally came out on Paramount+ and I watched it.

I won’t give away much of the movie for those that haven’t seen it. I’ll say that if you are fan of the classic ‘Airplane’ and ‘The Naked Gun’ movies, you may or may not enjoy this. There is some of the classic slapstick humor in it and some moments where I laughed. Overall, the movie was good but not great.

I feel like there were some forced moments to generate laughter. Liam Neeson’s take on Frank Drebin Jr was better than expected but it didn’t measure up to the level of Leslie Nielsen. Yes, I understand it’s a different actor, different time, and different movie. I feel that it missed the mark of what I feel makes a good slapstick movie.

I would give this movie 2 stars.