(Credits: Paramount Pictures / YouTube Still)
In 1982, ABC looked to capitalise on the popularity of spoof movies like Airplane! by commissioning a TV show in that style. Created by Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers (who also created the aforementioned movie), this was Police Squad!, a send-up of cop shows and police procedurals with a heavily comedic twist.
Unfortunately, after airing just four of the six episodes produced, ABC pulled the plug. Thankfully, the idea wasn’t dead, just resting. Six years later, the premise was revived as a feature film, and it was called The Naked Gun.
With Leslie Nielsen reprising his career-altering role as Frank Drebin, backed by a supporting cast including George Kennedy, Ed Williams, and the ageing like milk choice of OJ Simpson, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! was a runaway success. It topped the box office, generating enough interest for a sequel to be released three years later. The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear was also a hit, culminating in 1994’s Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, the third and last instalment in the franchise…or so we thought.
Rumours of a reboot of the series have been around since 2013. It wasn’t until Seth MacFarlane joined the project in 2021 that the wheels seriously began to move. In 2022, the project was greenlit, with MacFarlane confirmed as a producer and Lonely Island member Akiva Schaffer in the role of director. It was then announced that Pamela Anderson would be part of the cast, as would Golden Globe winner Paul Walter Hauser. They would be backing up the man cast in the role of the new Frank Drebin, Liam Neeson.
That brings us to the big question: Is Neeson funny enough? Thankfully for this article’s word count, the answer is complicated. The easiest avenue to pursue with a question like this is to look at Neeson’s previous body of work and see how funny it is. The Northern Irishman is mainly known for his tough-guy roles in action romps like the Taken franchise, which aren’t exactly a laugh-a-minute.
The man has been in some straight-up comedies, though. A Million Ways to Die in the West and Love Actually immediately spring to mind, but his role in The Lego Movie is his most promising indicator. As Good Cop/Bad Cop, he displayed the exact sort of silly, deadpan humour that made the original Naked Gun trilogy so fun. If he can channel this, he should do OK.
It’s also important to remember that the man Neeson is replacing didn’t have much of a comedy background either. Prior to his appearance in Airplane!, Leslie Nielsen was regarded a dramatic actor. He fronted sci-fi adventures and disaster epics like Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure, which is precisely why, when he turned up doing silly wordplay and slapstick in The Naked Gun, audiences couldn’t help but laugh. His formerly serious reputation became a part of his comedic arsenal. This is definitely a trick his modern-day equivalent can also pull.
On paper, Liam Neeson definitely has the comedy chops to pull off the part of Frank Drebin Jr. There are so many other factors that will determine whether or not this reboot is any good, though, so the only way to know for sure is to fork over some money for a ticket.
Related Topics
