It’s Legal for Comedy to be ‘Naked’ Again in 2025

July 30, 2025

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Have Gun, will Naked (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)

Starring: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, Eddie Yu

Director: Akiva Schaffer

Running Time: 85 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Cartoonish Violence and Pixelated Nudity

Release Date: August 1, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Carrying on the inimitable legacy of his late father, Lieutenant Detective Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) is the pride of Los Angeles’ Police Squad division. But he and his partner Ed Hocken Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser) – son of Frank Sr.’s old boss – find themselves a bit stymied by their latest case. Or pair of cases, really. Which are really the same case. First there’s a bank robbery in which none of the culprits actually take any money. Then there’s a dead man in an electric car in a ditch in an apparent suicide. But the deceased’s sister (Pamela Anderson) suspects some foul play. And it all leads back to tech mogul Richard Cane (Danny Huston), who’s seeking to electrically revolutionize the world in his image.

What Made an Impression?: Legacy vs. Independence: In one of the first scenes of this rebooted version of The Naked Gun, Drebin Jr. looks at a portrait of his dad and asks him if he can be both exactly the same as him and also completely his own man. That’s basically the core challenge of any legacy sequel, but it’s especially acute when following in the footsteps of one of the most beloved spoof series of all time. Successful comedy thrives on surprise, but you risk alienation if you stray too far from the established formula. Well, I’m here to happily report that Drebin and Company have achieved their goal. This Naked Gun indeed honors the profoundly silly legacy of its predecessors while also working in a sufficiently altered milieu and blazing its own path.
All the Funny: It certainly helps when the crew behind the scenes has a knack for crafting funny business. Akiva Schafer is the key creative voice here, serving as a director and one of three credited screenwriters (along with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand). Schaffer is best known as one-third of The Lonely Island, the crew responsible for Saturday Night Live‘s Digital Shorts era. Unsurprisingly, he brings an omnivorous and shameless approach to the cavalcade of joke-a-minute gags of display. Vocal puns, text puns, visual puns, background gags, running gags, misdirects, hallucinatory diversions, bizarre character beats: if you hate one joke, don’t worry, because the forecast is like mountainous weather. Which is to say, a new joke is coming in just a minute.
A New Drebin for a New Era: The original Naked Gun movies and the Police Squad! TV show were released in a time when fictional police officials were widely accepted as trustworthy authority figures. But the cultural temperature is a little different in 2025. This Naked Gun is hardly a merciless takedown of copaganda, but it does take some genuinely hard shots at Drebin Jr’s extra-legal behavior. Neeson is just as occasionally oblivious and literal-minded as Leslie Nielsen was before him, but he’s also more feral and clearly deserving of being knocked down a few pegs.
L.A. is Full of Characters: Thus far, I’ve mainly talked about the director and the No. 1 Guy on the Call Sheet, without really spotlighting the supporting cast. So let me say: they’re all great! Pamela Anderson is a natural as the femme fatale, and Hauser is always reliable, while Huston and CCH Pounder also clearly understand the assignment of: “play it straight, and the laughs will follow.” Comedy is alive and naked, baby!

The Naked Gun (2025) is Recommended If You Like: To Laugh, and Laugh Again, and then Laugh Some More

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 Coffee Cups

Shall We Join ‘The Crow’ Team?

September 5, 2024

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Something to Crow about? (CREDIT: Lionsgate)

Starring: Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs, Danny Huston, Josette Simon, Laura Birn, Sami Bouajila, Isabella Wei, Jordan Bolger

Director: Rupert Sanders

Running Time: 111 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: August 23, 2024 (Theaters)

Well, I just saw a movie, so I guess it’s time to ask myself once again: would I like this to happen to me? “This” being “become The Crow (2024).” I can definitely see the appeal! The Bill Skarsgård version of Eric’s trail of vengeance may be soul-destroying, but it’s relatively clean and about as straightforward as advertised. Plus, I’ve never seen the 1994 Crow (nor read any of the comics, for that matter), so I don’t have a sterling standard in my head to compare it against. Ultimately, if I could somehow finagle a fantastical Crow-like journey that wouldn’t seep into my mortal existence, I’d be down for it, especially if it meant having a mentor played by Sami Bouajila, who kind of reminded me of Luis Guzman in the “Documentary Filmmaking: Redux” episode of Community.

Grade: 3 Crows out of More Crows

‘Horizon,’ Where Art Thou?

July 8, 2024

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CREDIT: Warner Bros. Pictures/Screenshot

Starring: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Jena Malone, Michael Angarano, Abbey Lee, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jon Beavers, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Luke Wilson, Ella Hunt, Tom Payne, Georgia MacPhail, Will Patton, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Gregory Cruz, Scott Haze, Angus Macfadyen, Etienne Kellici, Charles Halford, Dale Dickey, Wasé Chief, Elizabeth Dennehy, Hayes Costner, Alejandro Edda, Tim Guinee, Colin Cunningham, James Russo, Douglas Smith, Larry Bagby, Dalton Baker, Chase Ramsey, Naomi Winders, Austin Archer, Giovanni Ribisi

Director: Kevin Costner

Running Time: 181 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: June 28, 2024 (Theaters)

Many of my movie reviews operate by a simple question. And it goes a little something like this: do I want to have the sort of life portrayed in the movie that I’m reviewing? And so, now that I’ve seen Chapter 1, it must be asked: would I like to live in Horizon? Eh, I can pretty confidently say, “No, thanks.” I’ll see if I can summon back up some interest for Chapters 2-4. Maybe if it turns out the whole story was based in-universe on the drawings of the dopey English couple, then I’ll be satisfied.

Grade: Too Many Horizonites in the Horizon Spoil the Western Broth

This Is a Movie Review: Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly’s High Regard for a Couple of Screen Legends Makes ‘Stan & Ollie’ a Gently Heartwarming Affair

December 26, 2018

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CREDIT: Sony Pictures Classics

This review was originally published on News Cult in December 2018.

Starring: Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Nina Arianda, Danny Huston

Director: Jon S. Baird

Running Time: 97 Minutes

Rating: PG for A Few Adult Arguments

Release Date: December 28, 2018 (Limited)

If you’ve ever thought that Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly should team up to play legendary screen duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, then you must be their biggest fans or their close friends. Stan & Ollie very much feels like a passion project, and it also has the vibe of a secret present, because who in 2018 would have ever thought to ask if anyone wanted to make this movie? Coogan and Reilly have their subjects’ signature gestures down pat, and various real life scenes play out with a charming blend of misanthropic physical comedy in the vein of heavy luggage sliding down a staircase. The year is 1953, and Laurel and Hardy’s cinematic glory days are well over and never to re-emerge, though Stan is hard at work writing a screenplay about Robin Hood and incessantly tracking down a producer. But to actually make some dough and earn some new laughs, they head out on a tour of live shows in Britain and Ireland.

The primary, low-key charm of Stan & Ollie is the culmination of two longtime companions realizing the depth of their connection. The pressures of the road lead to simmering resentments being aired out, but those blowouts clear the way for these two to reaffirm that they are more than just partners but are in fact true and loyal friends who might as well put on one more show for as long it can last. Their relationship is mirrored by that between their wives, who are often at odds with each other as they stand firmly in their husbands’ corners. It is the third marriage for both of them, but it appears that the third time’s the charm. Stan’s wife Ida (Nina Arianda) is a bit of a brassy steamroller, while Ollie’s wife Lucille (Shirley Henderson) is mousy but just as formidable. There is one especially heartwarming moment in the middle of a show when Ollie’s health troubles look like they will incapacitate him, but he looks at Stan for support and they are able to carry on; meanwhile in the audience, Ida and Lucille become a unified front as they lock hands. That is the sort of unity of spirit you hope to find in any major personal endeavor.

Stan & Ollie is Recommended If You Like: The real Laurel and Hardy presumably, Low-key showbiz biopics

Grade: 3 out of 5 Top Hats

This Is a Movie Review: ‘All I See is You’ is a Sensuous Feast Hobbled by an Inconsequential Narrative

October 25, 2017

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CREDIT: Roland Neveu/Open Road Films

This review was originally posted on News Cult in October 2017.

Starring: Blake Lively, Jason Clarke, Danny Huston, Ahna O’Reilly, Wes Chatham, Miquel Fernández

Director: Marc Forster

Running Time: 110 Minutes

Rating: R for Sex Ranging From Passionate to Frustrated to Illicit to Voyeuristic

Release Date: October 27, 2017 (Moderate)

A couple is in the throes of passion, nearing climax. The woman is blind, but that does not mean she lacks vision entirely. For her, this moment is like a kaleidoscope of rapture, the embrace between her and her husband replicated throughout her entire field of perception. It is a euphoric start for All I See is You, whose aesthetic ambitions far outstrip its narrative ones.

Gina (Blake Lively, rarely better) is the victim of an accident that stripped her of her eyesight. Her husband James (Jason Clarke) has remained a steady presence during her time of darkness. The part of her brain meant to interpret the work of her eyes is still working, so instead of pitch black, she is treated to a constant laser light show. For about the first half hour, director Marc Forster and his design team revel in the opportunities to render the subjective experience of blindness in cinematic terms. But then, her doctor (Huston) promises a procedure to restore her sight, which proves to be a liability for both the film’s creativity and Gina and James’ relationship. Despite how trustworthy as his character is meant to be, it goes to show you that anyone played by Danny Huston cannot help but be ominous.

With Gina on the road to a full recovery, the film takes a swerve into a dour drama about love on the rocks, and not a very interesting one. James proves to be too prudish and unadventurous for Gina, but the real problem is his controlling nature. It was easier when he could be the steady hand when she was blind, but now he is practically useless. It does not help that they are struggling to have a baby, with James likely lashing out due to his own impotence. There is perhaps a story worth exploring here about how this relationship was kept afloat by a disability, but any conclusions drawn therein are rather vague. Besides, it feels pointless to even bother what themes the film is trying to touch on here (something about voyeurism?) when it abandons its best feature way too quickly.

All I See is You is Recommended If You Like: Terrence Malick-ian visuals, Leaving 30 minutes after the movie starts

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Lasers