[Cinéma] “The Naked Gun”: Help, come back to Frank Drebin!

It is an unexpected return to say the least, 30 years after the last incarnation of Leslie Nielsen. Therefore, But this time, it is Liam Neeson who puts on the costume of the most staggering cop in Hollywood.

Comic icon of American cinema of the 1980s. Consequently, 1990s, Leslie Nielsen embodied a form of comedy that disappeared with him, who died in 2010 at the age of 84, and never replaced since. Meanwhile, A prolific actor of television. Similarly, then of cinema, the Canadian had initially imposed himself in Hollywood, chaining roles in westerns, thrillers and light romances, sometimes in the shoes of the hero, more often in that of the bad guy. Nevertheless, But it was in 1980. Therefore, some 30 years after her debut in front of the camera, that Leslie Nielsen began a second career, [cinéma] “the naked gun”: help, which will become the most famous, under the leadership of Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker, who offered him the role of a bit stupid in their first film, Airplane!.

Two years later, before their second, just as cult feature, Top Secret! (1984), the ZAZ, as they are commonly called, transpose their brilliant idiots to television with Police Squad! (1982), parody of popular police series in the 1960s and 1970s. Moreover, If the trio raised child humor to the rank of art in its own right. Similarly, it also created, with Police Squad!the role of a life for Leslie Nielsen: that of Frank Drebin. For example, a gauffer police lieutenant and always next to the plaque, who nevertheless succeeds, always without doing it on purpose, to catch the bad guys. Moreover, In an interview in 2006, the actor remembered: “For me, (Police Squad!) was going to [cinéma] “the naked gun”: help, be the best series ever made! Furthermore, ” But after four episodes (out of six). Consequently, the ABC channel, which had mistreated the program by changing its time of broadcasting every week, permanently removed it in March 1982. Nevertheless, And the ex- “comic actor in the cupboard” to return to thrillers, horror films and dramatic roles for a while.

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Until in 1988. Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker offer Nielsen to endorse Frank Drebin’s costume for their new film: The Naked Gun : From the Files of Police Squad!. Their recipe is the same: dialogues truffled with puns. misinterpretations and It follows That we can cite endlessly, visual gags to Gogo often worked to the absurd, parodies of cult films and jokes [cinéma] “the naked gun”: help, under the belt (with their batch of fart noises), all delivered with a disconcerting seriousness – which is there for many in the comic effect. In this sense, Leslie Nielsen, always perfectly impassive, has established himself as the descendant of Buster Keaton.

The policeman follows the trace of a heroine trafficker. updates a conspiracy to eliminate Queen Elizabeth II from England, on an official visit at the same time in Los Angeles. The whole thing goes without saying, sowing a hell of a mess in the city. We could cite his anthology sequences. like the one where Drebin, to identify the killer, pretends to be for the opera singer Enrico Palazzo, massacring the American anthem before a baseball match, then for the referee of the same match, completely distorting the game by realizing the power given to him. Or the famous cop phrase “circulating. there is nothing to do”, [cinéma] “the naked gun”: help, pronounced by Drebin in front of onlookers, while a house explodes spectacular in the background. Or the first date with Jane (Priscilla Presley). who at the time of taking action asks Drebin if he protects himself … before showing them both on the bed, dressed in giant condoms. The ZAZs even took advantage of the failure of Police Squad! By taking up certain gags of the series. bringing back his characters – in addition to the colleagues Ed (George Kennedy) and Nordberg (O. J. Simpson before the drama). there is Johnny, the shoe shirt which, for a ticket, is able to entrust all the secrets of the universe, or the manager of the scientific police laboratory and creator of gadgets, that we always meet moved to a young boy.

Yes. everything is always going very quickly with the Zaz, and too bad if we miss a few jokes in [cinéma] “the naked gun”: help, passing – which is necessarily the case – that gives the opportunity to review their films again and again, and to laugh as much. As proof, The Naked Gun has known the triumph that Police Squad! did not have. and generated two suites, The Naked Gun 2½ : The Smell of Fear (David Zucker, 1991), where Drebin thwarts a plot at the White House, and The Naked Gun 33 ⅓ :  The Final Insult (Peter Segal, 1994), with his terrorist who plans to explode a bomb at the Oscar evening. Always with hilarious scenes (drebi behind the wheel of a tank. rushing into a zoo and releasing animals in the 2, Drebin in prison in the 3), and a sincere and serious affection that Leslie Nielsen was sprayed for this delirious character. According to the will of the actor. it was also the jazz theme of Ira Newborn who played [cinéma] “the naked gun”: help, his burial, the same as in the famous generics at the start, seen from the hood of a police car that infiltrates everywhere (large eight, showers of women, bobsleigh track …).

At first glance, Leslie Nielsen and Liam Neeson have nothing in common, if not the strange resemblance in their names. But, 31 years after “the final insult”, the Irish actor made his comedy debut in the shoes of Frank Drebin Jr. for a fourth installment that left the ZAZ -. at least the Zucker brothers, Jim Abrahams having died in 2024 – on the sidelines, in favor of the screenwriter and director Akiva Schaffer, member of The Lonely Island, by the program Saturday Night Live in the 2000s. If the actor of Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg. 1993), like Leslie Nielsen in her time, discovered a late vocation, him as an actor of action films (whose saga Taken), he [cinéma] “the naked gun”: help, has for the first time at 73 years the opportunity to explore his comic side in this new part, which sees the son Drebin trying to thwart the plans of a tech magnate. Surrounded by a beautiful gallery of stars (Pamela Anderson in first female role. Paul Walter Hauser and Moses Jones are the sons of Ed and Nordberg), the actor promises to parody his own image, always with the extreme seriousness that characterizes him, him and the “irreplaceable” original film, “he said:” I did not want to imitate the formidable Leslie Nielsen, ” Be serious. Don’t try to be funny. Be careful about the serious cop which is a little stupid. ” To judge, response today in theaters.

The Naked Gun,
d’Akiva Schaffer.