Movie Monday - The Naked Gun (2025)

While I'd love nothing more than write 2,000 words about Paul Thomas Anderson/Leonardo DiCaprio's newest movie One Battle After Another -- because I'm still buzzing off it almost 2 weeks after seeing it -- I realize 99% of people have yet to see it. So while my girlfriend went to see the new Taylor Swift movie about the making of her new album Life of a Showgirl (Bean's Top 3 from the album: Opalite, Fate of Ophelia, Actually Romantic) -- I stayed in Friday night and watched The Naked Gun on Paramount+. Of the same name as the 1988 classic, which starred Comedy legend Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin -- this 2025 release stars Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., and is one of the funniest movies of the year.

Premise

Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr becomes a police officer like his legendary father and must save the police department from shutting down by solving a case.

Cast

Character -- Actor -- (Actor's previous films/shows I know them from best)

• Frank Drebin Jr. -- Liam Neeson -- (Taken, Schindler's List, Qui-Gon in The Phantom Menace)

• Beth Davenport -- Pamela Anderson -- (Baywatch, The Last Showgirl, Scary Movie 3)

• Ed Hocken Jr. -- Paul Walter Houser -- (Black Bird, Richard Jewell, Queenpins, I, Tonya)

• Richard Cane -- Danny Huston -- (Yellowstone, Succession, Angel Has Fallen)

• Chief Davis -- CCH Pounder -- (The Shield, NCIS: New Orleans)

Movie starts and ends with Liam Neeson, who is downright hysterical in this movie. Think of his cameo in Ted when he's at the grocery store getting Trix cereal -- that serious, dry humor is maxed out throughout this movie. He has countless one-liners and running gags throughout the movie that made me Laugh out Loud, and I'd watch 5 more sequels with him in the lead role.

Pamela Anderson is also very funny and her talents are used to perfection. Even at 58 years old Pam Anderson is still painting 99-mph fastballs on the outside corner. Her voice also plays well next to Neeson's rough/raspy deliveries in a very funny way.

Those 2 are the main stars -- everyone else are pretty minor players. There's some very funny gages with Paul Walter Houser's character, Danny Huston plays the villain and is definitely the straight man character -- which makes his funny jokes and bits even funnier because it's less expected. There's also a handful of really funny and surprising cameos that I loved.

General Thoughts

This may come off in a negative way, but I mean it in the most complimentary-fashion possible: this is the definition of slap-stick, stupid humor that I absolutely love. If you've seen the original Naked Gun, it's an incredibly similar style of comedy, which works perfectly. This is an 86-minute movie that absolutely packs in the jokes and gags -- there's not a minute of this movie that doesn't include some sort of jokes, and 90% of them are very funny.

You can't go into this movie expecting to see a perfectly competent plot/storyline, because that isn't what they're going for. It's intentionally outlandish and goofy -- it's essentially a live-action cartoon. But I do think it does an admirable job of implementing present-day ideas with more classical comedy elements. The story will show Liam Neeson's character driving an electric car that looks like a goofy version of a Tesla -- while they run a 1980s gag where him and Paul Walter Houser are continuously getting coffees handed to them at the most random times.

The best aspect of this movie to me -- which I think will be appreciated by many others -- is that it's such a quick watch. Less than an hour and a half -- shorter than some episodes of Stranger Things for Christ's sake -- and absolutely packed with jokes and action. I'm all for long movies -- One Battle After Another is 2 hours 40 minutes, I loved Oppenheimer which was 3+ -- but when it comes to a slapstick comedy like this, shortening the run-time adds to the experience. This movie absolutely nails it on the pacing and the amount of jokes.

If you have a Paramount+ account and want to laugh your ass off -- The Naked Gun is for you. Run don't walk.

Score

7.6/10

2025 Bean's Blog Movie Rankings

1. One Battle After Another (9.5/10)

2. Sinners (9.0/10)

3. Weapons (9.0/10)

4. Friendship (8.8/10)

5. Warfare (8.6/10)

6. Superman (7.8/10)

7. The Naked Gun (7.6/10)

8. Fantastic Four: First Steps (7.4/10)

9. Novocaine (6.9/10)

10. Mountainhead (6.8/10)

11. Mickey 17 (6.1/10)

12. Happy Gilmore 2 (3.7/10)

13. Kinda Pregnant (0.1/10)

2025 Movies on my List (have been released)

1. Caught Stealing

2. Eddington

3. F1

4. The Phoenician Scheme

5. The Long Walk

6. Black Bag

7. The Amateur

8. Highest 2 Lowest

9. Companion

10. Thunderbolts*

Upcoming 2025 Releases (ranked by excitement)

1. The Smashing Machine (released last wknd - The Rock, Emily Blunt)

2. Avatar: Fire and Ash (3rd release from James Cameron)

3. Marty Supreme (Timothee Chalamet as a Ping-Pong star)

4. The Running Man (Glen Powell in a Hunger Games-esque plot)

5. Now You See Me: Now You Don't (3rd Now You See Me installment)

6. Bugonia (Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons from Yorgos Lanthimos)

7. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (Jeremey Allen White as The Boss)

8. After the Hunt (Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Adebiri)

9. Jay Kelly (George Clooney and Adam Sandler)

10. Anaconda (Jack Black/Paul Rudd comedy)