This is a sequel to "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad" with the same lead actors.
When you see "sequel" in a description of a movie, it's usually a bad sign, like Cheynes-Stokes breathing. In this case, the sequel is so funny that there isn't time enough for its weaknesses to register. One gag follows another so quickly that the viewer is overwhelmed.
There IS some repetition. What was funny and surprising in the original is no longer surprising but still funny. Well, I'll give an example. In the end credits of the first movie we see the name of the Best Boy, and it's followed by a credit for the Worst Boy (Adolf Hitler). Here, the end credits give us the name of the Set Painter, followed by the names of Impressionist Painters, Vincent van Gogh and Edgar ("Skip") Degas.
The story, which doesn't count for much, is organized around an evil cabal of oil and coal millionaires who want to defeat any efforts to switch to renewable energy sources. I can imagine some among us being offended. More socialist propaganda. And the actor who plays George H. W. Bush comes off as rather a dull bulb but, as far as that goes, I don't know whether the writers have humiliated him more than they humiliated Queen Elizabeth II in the original.
Much of the humor is fresh and a lot of it takes place in the background. When Frank Drebbin is depressed he winds up drinking in a bar specializing in depression. While a singer moans out lines about wishing she could wake up dead, we see large photographs of disasters on the walls -- the San Francisco earthquake, the Hindenberg explosion, the sinking of the Titanic, the Ford Edsel, and Michael Dukakis.
The cast is as good as it was in the original. Leslie Nielson handles the part of Drebbin well, although he's a little old for Priscilla Presley. Though -- I don't know -- if her IMDb.com biography and my arithmetic is correct, she was in her mid-30s when this was shot, and could pass for someone ten years younger. George Kennedy, always affable, provides excellent support. Seeing O. J. Simpson is depressing, even when he's involved in one of the gags.
One of the funniest gags, really outrageous, is when Richard Griffiths is bound to his wheelchair against some metal shelving. The shelving is being shaken by accident. The objects that fall from the top shelf and hit him unerringly on the head are hilarious -- a bowling ball, an anvil, a can of oil followed by a carton of Styrofoam peanuts.
I don't want to spell anymore out but must mention that the dialog is as sharp as the action. Presley is describing a suspect -- "A white guy. Big mustache. Six feet." And Drebbin remarks: "That's a pretty big mustache." It's really very funny.
When you see "sequel" in a description of a movie, it's usually a bad sign, like Cheynes-Stokes breathing. In this case, the sequel is so funny that there isn't time enough for its weaknesses to register. One gag follows another so quickly that the viewer is overwhelmed.
There IS some repetition. What was funny and surprising in the original is no longer surprising but still funny. Well, I'll give an example. In the end credits of the first movie we see the name of the Best Boy, and it's followed by a credit for the Worst Boy (Adolf Hitler). Here, the end credits give us the name of the Set Painter, followed by the names of Impressionist Painters, Vincent van Gogh and Edgar ("Skip") Degas.
The story, which doesn't count for much, is organized around an evil cabal of oil and coal millionaires who want to defeat any efforts to switch to renewable energy sources. I can imagine some among us being offended. More socialist propaganda. And the actor who plays George H. W. Bush comes off as rather a dull bulb but, as far as that goes, I don't know whether the writers have humiliated him more than they humiliated Queen Elizabeth II in the original.
Much of the humor is fresh and a lot of it takes place in the background. When Frank Drebbin is depressed he winds up drinking in a bar specializing in depression. While a singer moans out lines about wishing she could wake up dead, we see large photographs of disasters on the walls -- the San Francisco earthquake, the Hindenberg explosion, the sinking of the Titanic, the Ford Edsel, and Michael Dukakis.
The cast is as good as it was in the original. Leslie Nielson handles the part of Drebbin well, although he's a little old for Priscilla Presley. Though -- I don't know -- if her IMDb.com biography and my arithmetic is correct, she was in her mid-30s when this was shot, and could pass for someone ten years younger. George Kennedy, always affable, provides excellent support. Seeing O. J. Simpson is depressing, even when he's involved in one of the gags.
One of the funniest gags, really outrageous, is when Richard Griffiths is bound to his wheelchair against some metal shelving. The shelving is being shaken by accident. The objects that fall from the top shelf and hit him unerringly on the head are hilarious -- a bowling ball, an anvil, a can of oil followed by a carton of Styrofoam peanuts.
I don't want to spell anymore out but must mention that the dialog is as sharp as the action. Presley is describing a suspect -- "A white guy. Big mustache. Six feet." And Drebbin remarks: "That's a pretty big mustache." It's really very funny.