Product Description

A BLUNDERING LOS ANGELES DETECTIVE AND HIS BOSS FOIL A PLAN TO ASSASSINATE QUEEN ELIZABETH. FROM THE FILES OF "POLICE SQUAD."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15376 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2000-08-15
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 85 minutes

Amazon.com
David Zucker--of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker creative troika behind Airplane! and television's Police Squad!--directed this 1988 feature film based on the latter show. Leslie Nielsen returns to his old TV role of Lt. Frank Drebin, the deadpan idiot with a detective's badge. The reinvention of the failed series as a theatrical feature seems to have inspired everyone involved to make a pretty funny movie, and the jokes gather a momentum that lasts until the final act. Ricardo Montalban is a perfect foil as a villain whose aquarium is being invaded by Drebin during routine questioning, and George Kennedy is delightful in a self-parodying part as an earnest but obtuse lawman. There's a hilarious bit when Drebin--wearing a live police wire while going to the bathroom--can be overheard over the loudspeakers at a speech given by a flustered mayor (Nancy Marchand). Yes, that's O.J. Simpson as a detective who ends up on the wrong side of numerous Drebin blunders. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

So many sight gags it takes repeated viewing to catch 'em!
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.

You'll get gas from laughing so hard!
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!

Hysterical From Start to Finish
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.