Do you ever feel like if you had a nickel for every time someone says “reboot” you’d be a millionaire, or, worse, kill (or slightly injure, we’re not monsters) the next person that says it? I know I have. Even reboots have reboots. Take the upcomingSuperman. It’s a reboot ofMan of Steel, which was a reboot ofSuperman Returns, the attempt to reboot the classic originalSupermanfilms starringChristopher Reeve. It’s like creativity has been taken to the shed out back andOld Yeller-ed.But one upcoming reboot has me rethinking my stance, to such a degree that I may even renounce my hatred of reboots, and possibly even embrace them. That reboot isThe Naked Gun.
My Love of ‘The Naked Gun’ Runs Deep
Upon first hearing thatThe Naked Gunwas being rebooted, it filled my heart with fear, which downgraded to flat-out wailing in sackcloth knowingSeth MacFarlanewas involved. See,The Naked Gun, andAirplane!before it, are films that I love deeply, even deeper than my weird obsession withThe Brady Bunch, but that’s a story for another time. And it wasn’t either of them that introduced me to the comedy unique toZucker/Abrahams/Zucker, aka ZAZ, but rather the TV seriesPolice Squad!, on whichThe Naked Gunis based. The comedy was different, full of visual gags and wordplay that would foster into my own comic senses. I still recall specific moments from the series, like a couple going out to the Japanese garden, which is full of Japanese people in flower pots, or this exchange:
“Cigarette?”
“Yes, I know.”
The Naked Gunsacrificed nothing in taking the world ofPolice Squad!to the big screen. The screen was larger, yes, but the wordplay and sight gags remained intact. More importantly, it still hadLeslie Nielsen, whose career was revitalized thanks to his appearance inAirplane!as Dr. Rumack, he of the immortal “I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.” Nielsen deftly played the role of Frank Drebin straight, like a “normal” police procedural, accentuating the humor by not acknowledging the absurdity of it all. And that deadpan delivery of his? Perfection, right down to the cadence.The Naked Gunhas its toilet-humor moments — using the washroom with his microphone still on, for example —but for the most part, it’s a non-stop parade of sight gags, casual asides, and puns, completely devoid of any dramatic moments that would derail it.
Why ‘The Naked Gun’ 2025 Has Me Pro-Reboot
Doubling back to that initial reaction, my concern was that, in the hands of MacFarlane, the scale would be tipped more toward toilet humor and not the clever wit of the original. I feared that instead of playing the scenes straight, the reboot would play into that modern idea of winking at the audience, essentially acknowledging that there’s absurdity going on, and the characters know it just as much as we do.Thefirst teaser trailerdid little to assuage my fears. Seeing a little girl walk into a dangerous heist, only to reveal that she’s actually Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) in disguise, was funny, but the violent takedown of the robbers was inconsistent with the spirit of the original. TheO.J. Simpsonbit was very funny but, again, has a character break the fourth wall, acknowledging its absurdity, just as I feared. Goddamn reboots. Grr.
The 10 Best ‘The Naked Gun’ Quotes, Ranked
“I’ve got nine more…”
Then camethe full theatrical trailer, and, lo and behold, I could literally feel the loathing of reboots melt away as it became clearThe Naked Gunwould honor the original. The same setups, the same deadpan delivery — a little Neeson-growlier, but still the same — the same devotion to the visual gags and wordplay. The scenes in the first trailer worked in the context of the larger trailer. It doesn’t fall into the trap that most reboots notoriously do, sacrificing the spirit of the original property to make the reboot “fit” today’s sensibilities. Instead, what’s old is new again, withThe Naked Gunfaithfully adhering to those things that made the original a success. Simple gags, like the absurdity of a hand reaching in to give Drebin a coffee… while he’s driving his car. Wordplay, evidenced by Beth (Pamela Anderson) taking a seat, literally. And Neeson is committed to playing things straight, the way that Nielsen did with such success, ignoring the folly of mispronouncing “manslaughter” as “man’s laughter.“The Naked Gunpromises to be a reboot that does what a reboot should: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Or, if it’s completely and utterly destroyed,dofix it — I’m talking to you,Fantastic Four: First Steps.
The Naked Gun
