When the first teaser trailer for the upcoming revival of The Naked Gun – which stars Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. (the son of Leslie Nielsen’s character from the original films) and is written and directed by Akiva Schaffer – released back in April, I maintained a cautious optimism based on the limited footage we were shown. I noted that, at least from a glance, those behind it, which also includes Seth McFarlane as a producer, were seemingly making “the right moves”, giving us a “reason to hope.”
Yet, after seeing the first full-length trailer for the upcoming comedy, which releases on August 1st, I am suddenly less hopeful and more concerned about the film we might be getting.
I’ve already covered most of what I like about this latest trailer in my article on the teaser, so be sure to check that out before reading on. Going strictly by the teaser, they appeared to be nailing the tone of the original franchise, highlighting an outrageous but funny scene where Liam Neeson’s Frank dons a schoolgirl disguise to bust a bank robbery, as well as a laugh-out-loud moment that directly references the original trilogy cast member and definite murderer, O.J. Simpson. Unfortunately, it seems they were already showcasing the funniest moments, because most of the remaining trailer fails to beat, or for that matter, even match what was in the teaser.
The first (and biggest) red flag for me was when it became clear that Schaffer opted to use lower quality cameras in Drebin’s car and on his bodycam. I get what they’re going for here, as YouTube boasts a huge amount of footage from police encounters with a similar camera quality. It was also brilliantly used in the 2012 David Ayer action thriller End of Watch, but in this Naked Gun trailer it just looks flat-out cheap, all in the service of a poop joke that overstays its welcome even in the trailer. What’s more, the use of this type of camerawork emphasizes realism more than anything else, and so it feels utterly out of place in a slapstick comedy of this nature. Sure, such a technique could work in a comedy setting, but the toilet humour, as far as we’ve seen, simply doesn’t justify it whatsoever.
There are still moments that offer up an extra chuckle or two, such as Canadian actor Kevin Durand’s character spying on Drebin and his love interest Beth (Pamela Anderson), where it appears she is performing a sex act on him, until it is revealed that she is simply cleaning his oven. It’s funny, if uninspired. What is undoubtedly my new favourite moment, though, is when Drebin tells Anderson’s Beth to “take a chair”, who thanks him before proceeding to drag the chair out of his office. Now this is what I want to see from the film, as it is the exact type of line you would expect from the comedy geniuses of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, who made the original films.
Sadly, this is the peak of new footage in what is an otherwise middling trailer, as the rest of what is shown feels more like filler than actual beefy content to show the audiences, which makes me worry about what we haven’t seen yet. Given that The Naked Gun is only five weeks from release, we likely won’t see much else short of the occasional brief TV spot until it hits theatres, but based on the footage released so far, I, for one, will be checking the reviews before I see this comedy in theatres, as much as I want it to be the revival that the storied franchise deserves.
