A sketch stretched out to feature-length is not usually a glowing comment about a comedy, though there are some notable exceptions. Wayne’s World, The Blues Brothers, and, more recently, MacGruber​​​​​, are some examples, the last of which was directed by The Lonely Island, the SNL trio consisting of Andy Samberg, Jorma Tacome, and Akiva Schaffer. Schaffer is also behind 2025’s The Naked Gun, a legacy sequel to the third installment of the Leslie Nielsen-led parody franchise. The Naked Gun is essentially a sketch stretched into a full-length film.

It’s a critique you can lob at some previous Shaffer films, like H๏τ Rod and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, films that, while very funny, felt linked together with bubblegum. It’s not a problem here, precisely because The Naked Gun makes no effort to have even a semblance of a meaningful plot. That’s not to say there’s no story, but when a film opens with a thief breaking into a bank to steal a remote control box literally labeled “Plot Device,” you can stop worrying about the specifics of Frank Drebin, Jr.’s arc.

The Naked Gun Makes The Wise Decision To Focus On Laughs First & Foremost

The Plot Of The Film Is Negligible, Making The Movie More Streamlined

Instead, The Naked Gun focuses on the laughs, which are all performed with a surprising and crucial amount of restraint. Jokes never overstay their welcome, but they still hang around, allowing plenty of time for the laughter to keep going. My audience would occasionally laugh comfortably at a joke, then, a moment later, laugh even harder as we collectively discovered another level to a gag.

Occasionally, The Naked Gun misses, but Schaffer is wise enough to keep things moving. A joke eliciting a few uncomfortable chuckles is always followed by a knockout to have you grinning stupidly again. Shaffer knows exactly when to offer a palate cleanser, and the anticipation that comes when a joke is telegraphed is nearly as fun as the joke itself.

The premise of The Naked Gun is so thin as to be almost irrelevant, but it goes a little something like this. Frank Drebin, Jr. (Liam Neeson), the son of Leslie Nielsen’s character from the original films, is solving a mysterious suicide. He learns that tech billionaire Richard Cane (Danny Huston) plans to corrupt every phone in the world with a noise that causes those who hear it to tear one another apart, leaving only a few survivors for Danny and his wealthy ilk to lord over. There’s a hint of commentary there, but it’s never explored more deeply.

Frank is occasionally joined by his partner, Ed Hocken Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser), the son of another famous cop (all cops in this precinct are related to a beloved and ᴅᴇᴀᴅ police officer). He’s also joined by Beth Davenport, a woman investigating her brother’s murder, played by Pamela Anderson, in a sweet and perfectly pitched comedy performance to match Neeson’s.

The Naked Gun Is Old-Fashioned But Still Feels Fresh

Liam Neeson’s Stone-Faced Schtick Never Gets Old