So much average

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The Police Squad series seemed like a very promising sitcom in conception. It is very unfortunate that it did not go beyond six episodes. At least it was revived as a feature film.Compared to AIRPLANE and TOP SECRET, this Zucker/Abrams collaboration has more nuanced zaniness. The sight gags, while still outrageous, seem very natural and subtle. They're not as in your face as the ones in AIRPLANE. The film carries the tone of a typical police drama of the day; so there us still room for romance and sentimentality while not straying far from the comedy.This makes it the best Zucker/Abrams comedy. I wonder what their comic influences were.This has always been nostalgia for me.

Crazy literal humour from Leslie neilson and cast, always a fun watch with quotable lines!

If you like comedy movies, then I would definitely recommend this movie. Leslie Nielsen stars as the main character, and he certainly outdoes himself. This was a hilarious movie, and I was laughing throughout. One scene in particular had me actually cry from laughing so hard, something that a movie had never done before. If you want to go and see a movie that will have you laughing your socks off, then definitely go see this movie. You won't be disappointed.

(sorry for the lousy title, I needed an opening line)After the classic "Airplane!", the forgettable sequel and the criminally underrated "Top Secret!", Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker strike again after four years of creative gestation, providing what can easily be considered their consummate film. Actually, I can't decide between this and "Top Secret!". However, I do believe it's funnier than "Airplane!" for one simple reason. The disaster parody insisted a little too much on the romantic subplot, without providing funny gags to carry them, it was all the more redundant that the two leads were actually the least interesting characters of the whole film.The obvious scene-stealer in "Airplane!" was Leslie Nielsen and it's only fitting that he finally got to star in a ZAZ film before becoming their mascot, reprising his role as lawman Frank Drebin from the short-lived cult-series "Police Squad" in 1982. And who better than the late-blooming gray-haired actor with his deadpan expression delivering the most hilarious lines, to embody the humor of parody movies, which are movies that pretend to be serious about totally over-the-top and zany situations. Leslie Nielsen portrays the character of Frank Drebin as a no-nonsense guy evolving in a totally bizarre and nonsensical world. He becomes eccentric despite himself, and that's the mistake most comedies make, by having characters acting crazy in the first place.And Frank Drebin becomes a naturally comic actor, where almost each line can stand as a one-liner. Take the hospital scene where he's supposed to comfort his friend's wife, his remembrance of his ex-wife, his monologue à la Dirty Harry or Humphrey Bogart, Nielsen, with an extreme versatility, manages to fit every kind of humor, verbal and visual. And this film is real tribute to his talent, supported by no-less deserving cast, such as Nancy Marchand as the Mayor, his friend Ed Hocken played by George Kennedy and Priscilla Presley as the villain's pretty secretary falling in love with his 'funny face'. Speaking of falling, her entrance is the perfect ice-breaking moment to viewers who wanted to picture her as a glamour model. And in all that nonsense, Montalban does a great job as plays the typical suave and sinister villain.Now, is it necessary to sum up the whole plot? Let's just say that it's all about preventing the assassination of Queen Elizabeth, and that this plot only matters as a vehicle for non-stop gags, that take you from a (slightly) anti-Arab trip into Beirut to the usual staples of cop movies, starting with the unforgettable opening credits sequence, from the hilarious openina vertiginous impersonation of Harold Lloyd with the weirdest thing to hang on, a romantic montage to a climactic confrontation in a baseball stadium and a romantic declaration that make an Arab and a Jewish man have a hug, a gag that kind of redeems the opening scene. Of course, the final scene provokes a superb final sight gag that might console those who have a hard time watching OJ Simpson in such a feel-good film, but let's just accept it as the only element that dates the film..And "The Naked Gun" isn't just a funny film, it's a film that is so daring and so obsessed by its mission to make us laugh that no minute is wasted, each one of them is full of say, one or two gags, and the rest is only quick set-ups. This is not just a watchable but a rewatchable and a re-rewatchable film as the probability to miss some jokes will be high especially if you're busy laughing out loud from the previous gag. It's a movie that, no matter in which mood you appear to be, will put a big, big smile in your face and sometimes, there's no more explanation needed. But I have personal reasons to enjoy this film, more than another.I never really heard about the word "parody" until I was 11 and there was a TV special classic parodies, starting with "The Naked Gun". I didn't really get the difference between that and the usual comedy, not until that scene where poor Nordberg (O.J. Simpson) gets shot by a bunch of criminal, and then endures many other unfortunate accidents such as burning his hand on a stove, putting his arm on a wet paint door, his head falling on a wedding cake or his leg caught in a bear trap. Within a minute, I got the idea, and I remembered I had already seen a few movies with the same comedic zaniness like "Spaceballs" or "Johnny Dangerously". But if anything, it was "The Naked Gun" that introduced me to the parody genre.And till now, I can't believe that this film wasn't introduced in the American Film institute's Top 100 Comedies while other films like "Fargo", "The Graduate" or "Big" are there. That's a parody of listing, if I might say so.