Director: David Zucker
Genre(s): Comedy, Crime
Runtime: 85 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Inept police officer Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) is back in action and ready to deliver more laughs in this sequel to the 1988 masterpiece The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!. This time, pro-green-energy scientist Dr. Meinheimer (Richard Griffiths) has been kidnapped by fossil fuel tycoons…and it’s up to Drebin to rescue him. Featuring the same absurd, slapstick-oriented humor of the original, this flick is a real winner.
The series’ style of comedy is still stupid as Hell, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. For all of its proud dumbness, the filmmakers definitely seem to know that they’re crafting low-brow gags. I love the franchise’s brand of humor, and I know that I was guffawing constantly throughout the picture’s relatively short runtime. It’s all deeply silly and juvenile.
Okay, The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear is the least-best of the trilogy (I will not use the word “worst” here). It’s the least memorable of the series and perhaps the least joke-heavy, but it’s still a serious hoot. There are a few moments of physical action, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that they’re “exciting.” That’s okay, this is a comedy, not an action film.
Do you like the sound of a comedy movie featuring endless crotch jokes and other audaciously stupid gags? Well, then I probably don’t need to tell you that The Naked Gun 2½ is your ticket to Belly Laugh City (geez, what a lame-sounding recommendation that is!). It may not be the best of its trilogy, yet its did-they-really-just-go-there? sense of humor will unquestionably please fans of lowest-common-denominator merriment. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
My rating is 9 outta 10.
The Film Heretic Watches a Classic 