Oh how the almost mighty have fallen. Leslie Nielsen may not be regarded as a comedic genius by anyone's standards, but he has made some stupid, but enjoyable films in his career. In contrast, his latest, "2001: A Space Travesty", is just stupid, a very poor rehash of Leslie Nielsen's "Naked Gun" series and character with dated attempts of humor that just aren't funny.
Leslie Nielsen is Richard Dick Dix, a total rip-off of his Lt. Frank Drebin, his most well-known role from "Police Squad!" and the "Naked Gun" series. As his name and the film's R rating already tell, instead of going for light-hearted stupid slapstick comedy a la most of Nielsen's other films, "2001: AST" attempts light-hearted stupid sexual comedy. This in itself wouldn't be a bad thing if it didn't fail so miserably at it. There is a ton of crude toilet and sexual humor, and none of it is funny to anyone over the age of 10 (and the majority of it wouldn't be funny to anyone under that age either). Nielsen's trademark straight delivery of absurd lines and situations is still present, but the material isn't by any means even remotely funny so it doesn't work.
A good portion of the material is not only unfunny, but dated as well. A Bill Clinton impersonator playing the President is OK considering production of the film began in 2000 and probably before the new election, but scenes near the end featuring "celebrities" include impersonations of the Three Tenors, Madonna, Prince, and Hulk Hogan. This dated nature can also apply to the jokes; in reality they are no different than those in "Naked Gun", except that the last film in that series was made almost ten years ago, and sex-based humor has moved on, which would explain why it's just not funny. Director Allan Goldstein and writer Alan Shearman have no expertise in comedy to notice or help matters much. Shearman in particular hasn't written a comedy since 1990, which further explains the dated feel of the film.
Perhaps if this film had been released 10-15 years ago it would be funny. I would still be a child who would appreciate the attempts at toilet humor, and lewd sexual comedy was still on this level. The dated "celebrity" in-jokes may have even made sense. Even then, however, this film would still be known as the worst "Naked Gun" film. Released today, my ideas of comedy have matured much past this simple childish toilet humor, the dated jokes make no sense, and it's just terrible, by far one of the worst films I have ever seen.
Leslie Nielsen is Richard Dick Dix, a total rip-off of his Lt. Frank Drebin, his most well-known role from "Police Squad!" and the "Naked Gun" series. As his name and the film's R rating already tell, instead of going for light-hearted stupid slapstick comedy a la most of Nielsen's other films, "2001: AST" attempts light-hearted stupid sexual comedy. This in itself wouldn't be a bad thing if it didn't fail so miserably at it. There is a ton of crude toilet and sexual humor, and none of it is funny to anyone over the age of 10 (and the majority of it wouldn't be funny to anyone under that age either). Nielsen's trademark straight delivery of absurd lines and situations is still present, but the material isn't by any means even remotely funny so it doesn't work.
A good portion of the material is not only unfunny, but dated as well. A Bill Clinton impersonator playing the President is OK considering production of the film began in 2000 and probably before the new election, but scenes near the end featuring "celebrities" include impersonations of the Three Tenors, Madonna, Prince, and Hulk Hogan. This dated nature can also apply to the jokes; in reality they are no different than those in "Naked Gun", except that the last film in that series was made almost ten years ago, and sex-based humor has moved on, which would explain why it's just not funny. Director Allan Goldstein and writer Alan Shearman have no expertise in comedy to notice or help matters much. Shearman in particular hasn't written a comedy since 1990, which further explains the dated feel of the film.
Perhaps if this film had been released 10-15 years ago it would be funny. I would still be a child who would appreciate the attempts at toilet humor, and lewd sexual comedy was still on this level. The dated "celebrity" in-jokes may have even made sense. Even then, however, this film would still be known as the worst "Naked Gun" film. Released today, my ideas of comedy have matured much past this simple childish toilet humor, the dated jokes make no sense, and it's just terrible, by far one of the worst films I have ever seen.