Only one man has the particular set of skills - to lead Police Squad and save the world. (from IMDb)

I suppose a remake / soft reboot of The Naked Gun shouldn't be surprising. They've talked about bringing Detective Frank Drebin back to the big screen for years. But it's a character acclaimed actor Leslie Nielsen had made iconic since the short-lived TV series, Police Squad. But the successful 1988 movie, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, spawned two ridiculous sequels, and wiggled its silly little ways into the hearts of millions. So how can they even begin to think of remaking it?

Thankfully, for fans, 2025's The Naked Gun isn't a direct remake and, if anything, exists to cash-in on the long-dormant brand and honor the original in the process. Honestly, you can tell from the opening credits that this is a movie being handled with great care. It's reverent to the irreverence that came before it, and it's all assembled to bring fans more of what they think of when they think of Frank Drebin and Naked Gun.

First off, Liam Neeson is absolute brilliant casting. The fact he's typically a very (very) serious actor (I mean... Schindler's List, anyone? Taken?) makes him an interesting choice for this. But he's proven in various comedy sketches and such that he can deliver the best dead-pan comedy that you just would not expect. So if you like the idea of Neeson delivering absolutely ridiculous lines and doing some of the most visually silly things, this latest Naked Gun is just for you.

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I laughed this much during a movie. Even our audience was uproarious throughout the film - something I haven't heard in a theater in a really long time. It baffled me how the writers and director Akiva Schaffer were able to capture the feel and humor of the original. So many times, movies like this just seem like cheap knock-offs and counterfeit, but this one nailed the tone perfectly. And the jokes felt fresh and funny, too. Some are a little topical, but most are pretty universal. The visual gags are great, too - and not all of the movie's funniest stuff was spoiled in the trailers either.

Speaking of Neeson normally being a serious actor, it was definitely trippy to see actors like Danny Huston and Kevin Durand - two normally serious actors - acting in a movie like this. In most cases, they play their roles straight and serious, which adds to the humor. But seeing them in silly situations or reacting to absurdities is a real treat. Even composer Lorne Balfe - who has many notable scores under his belt, not limited to a couple Mission: Impossible entries and Black Widow - turns in a pretty serious score, which actually only adds to the hilarity of the film.

Going into it, I was definitely pretty worried about the content for The Naked Gun, given how overtly sexual the original ones could get at times. This new one is mostly just silly humor, but there are two sequences that get pretty crass and crude - if not borderline explicit. The first sequence is when Frank has Pamela Anderson's Beth come over his apartment. They're being watched through the window, but after Frank closes the curtains, the onlooker uses infrared goggles to continue spying. Due to the juxtaposition of Frank and Beth (and a dog), the situations look extremely sexual to those of us watching through the curtain. For example, as the two of them are handling a turkey baster over a turkey, it looks really inappropriate. Then there's some awkward positioning with the dog while Frank is aggressively petting it, and another shot shows Beth kneeling and vigorously scrubbing the inside of the oven while Frank is standing in the foreground. In other words, every situation is innocent in nature, but the visual is quite crude. Later, there's a love scene between Frank and Beth, and there are various shots of her in a silky, lacy top and them kissing, among other romantic situations. At one point, as a gag, they use a book of spells to conjur a spirit (totally played for absurd laughs) and it causes a snowman they made outside to come to life. We then see Frank and Beth kissing in bed, his hand cupping one side of her face... and then then snowman's hand caressing the other side. Then we see Frank and Beth sensually nibbling on the snowman's hands and making snow cones out of them. Finally, they push the snowman away, and it all suddenly turns into a horror film where the snowman seeks revenge and tries to kill them. It's so over-the-top and ridiculous that it's actually quite funny, but obviously, some viewers will be uncomfortable with both the sexual and even spiritual content there. Lastly, most of the rest of the humor is bathroom humor over bedroom humor, but there is a brief scene of nudity where Frank loses his pants in front of an arena audience. We see his bare butt cheeks while the frontal nudity is blurred out on a TV screen. An announcer then starts describing the majesty of Frank's genitals, comparing it to a bratwurst (or something like that). Profanity is pretty mild. We had a lot of laughing in our theater, so I may have missed a couple instances, but I only caught one "S" word during the very last scene (from Pamela), and several uses of "h*ll" and a couple uses of "G-d."

There are a couple surprisingly graphic moments, too. A character steps in a puddle of blood and finds a bloody knife at a crime scene. They then try moving a dead body and lift it up, accidentally hitting its head in the unseen fan on the ceiling. The camera pans up and we see the ceiling and walls covered in blood, and the body completely missing its head (there's no gore, just lots of blood). Later, Frank has a deep, deep gash in his arm and Beth goes to put medicine on it. There's then a running gag of a series of horrible things she applies to the open wound that should cause more pain than help (which is the joke). But the cut itself is hard to look at. Finally, a motorcyclist with a helmet on gets their head knocked clean off, but there's no blood or gore - just an empty-necked shirt underneath, and Frank tears the clothed arms off a man and smacks him with them (it's not bloody).

The Naked Gun is one of the few soft reboot/remakes that actually adds to what came before - maybe even improving on it. However, the content really can be pretty crass, so be warned before checking this one out.