MOVIE REVIEW – The Naked Gun (2025): A Hilarious, If Familiar, Return to Form
By Anthony Ferrara
The challenge of reviving a beloved, iconic comedy franchise like The Naked Gun is immense. How do you recapture the magic of Leslie Nielsen’s deadpan brilliance and the Zucker brothers’ absurdity without feeling like a pale imitation? The 2025 iteration of The Naked Gun largely succeeds in this daunting task, delivering a genuinely funny, if occasionally uneven, cinematic experience that will leave most audiences with sore cheeks from smiling.
The film gleefully leans into the signature Naked Gun style, offering a relentless barrage of visual gags, rapid-fire puns, and gloriously absurd scenarios. From the opening credits to the climax, the movie maintains a high joke-per-minute count. The slapstick is meticulously choreographed, leading to some truly inspired physical comedy, and the running gags, a hallmark of the franchise, are cleverly woven throughout, often building to hilarious payoffs. There’s a clear love and understanding of what made the originals work, and it’s translated effectively for a modern audience without sacrificing the classic feel.
The supporting cast also delivers commendable performances, providing excellent foils and adding their own layers of comedic chaos. The plot, as expected for a Naked Gun film, is merely a flimsy excuse for the outlandish situations, involving some ludicrous criminal scheme that Frank Drebin must inevitably bumble his way into solving. But who watches The Naked Gun for the intricate narrative?
However, while the film is undeniably funny, it doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of the original trilogy. Not every single gag lands with the same comedic precision, and at a couple of points, the pacing feels ever so slightly uneven, causing a momentary dip in the otherwise relentless wave of laughter. Some moments feel a little too reliant on callbacks rather than fresh invention, walking that fine line between homage and repetition. For die-hard fans of the 1980s and 90s classics, there might be a lingering sense that while it’s excellent, it just can’t quite replicate that initial spark of groundbreaking genius.
Despite these minor stumbles, The Naked Gun (2025) is a welcome and genuinely funny addition to a beloved comedic legacy. It proves that the brand of absurd, deadpan slapstick still has plenty of life left in it. For fans of classic slapstick, absurd humor, and those looking for a laugh-out-loud cinematic escape, The Naked Gun is well worth the price of admission. It might not be a perfect 10, but it’s a solid 7.5 that will leave you grinning.
I Give This Movie 7.5 Out of 10 Stars
– Anthony Ferrara
Anthony Ferrara is a Movie and Television Aficionado, Screenwriter, and Independent Movie Producer who hails from the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York. The comments in this review are the opinion of Anthony Ferrara and not necessarily those of the Staff and Management of Columbus County News.
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