When we first heard a while back that they were doing a new Naked Gun movie with Liam Neeson, we were perplexed. Mind you, we learned never to say never when it came to casting back when Michael Keaton surprised everyone in 'Batman,' but Neeson wasn’t our first choice to fill in the role for the late, great Leslie Nielson. But the more we thought about it, the more we started to believe that this might work. Nielson himself was known as a dramatic, serious, romantic leading man for decades until he was given a chance to let his comedy flag fly in ‘Airplane!’ Indeed, many of the cast members in that movie were known as dramatic actors and, for the most part, they played it straight. And Neeson was pretty hilarious in ‘The Lego Movie.’
So, we admit we were at least morbidly curious when the new trailer dropped for that movie today:
First trailer for ‘THE NAKED GUN’ reboot, starring Liam Neeson.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) April 3, 2025
In theaters on August 1. pic.twitter.com/q4HgQb7EEg
Of course, a trailer—in this case, a teaser trailer—can only tell you so much about a movie. For us, if a comedy trailer doesn’t actually make us laugh, we know the movie is probably crud. So, by the highly subjective standard of ‘did it make us laugh’ this trailer succeeds with us. So … maybe it will be good?
And let’s be honest, the way they handled O.J. Simpson? Perfect. No notes.
But let’s look in on reactions:
plz dont be woke plz dont be woke
— Derek Porter (@derekporter_) April 3, 2025
We hear ya, bud.
Police Squad was great, but the #NakedGun films were dire by comparison. Putting Liam Neeson in them just shows how far he's fallen. No-one asked for this. It's going to bomb bigger than #SnowWhite!#TheNakedGun #SnowWhiteTH
— DVDfever.co.uk 💙 (@DVDfever) April 3, 2025
-Liam Neeson as the lead
— Mac🦬 (@tha__buffalo) April 3, 2025
-Seth Mcfarland behind the scenes
-OJ joke in the trailer pic.twitter.com/grt39Bs38n
Get Leslie Nielson to do it, looks bad without him
— Mid (@MidwestHODL) April 3, 2025
Um....
Count me out. There’s no chance it’s even remotely as good as the first and I am willing to bet it’s politicized. Not even gonna chance it.
— SassyTok (@sassafras0910) April 3, 2025
Recommended
We get that, but hopefully people like the Critical Drinker can call that out ahead of time if it is woke.
NO MORE REMAKES
— Tom Pappert (@realTomPappert) April 3, 2025
It isn’t. At worst it is a soft reboot.
That last gag had me howling!
— 𝘿𝘼𝙑𝙀 𝙎𝘼𝙑𝘼𝙂𝙀🐲𝙁𝙄𝘾-𝙏𝘼𝙂𝙄𝙊𝙐𝙎 (@DaveSavage1982) April 3, 2025
I'm happy this is somewhat of a continuation and not a remake.
Looking forward to this one!
Right, they acknowledge that the previous movies happened, as if continuity was a big deal with these things.
Wait, are we sure Ed Hocken is the father? pic.twitter.com/crdhO54rcU
— AdamInHTownTX (@AdamInHTownTX) April 3, 2025
That OJ joke made it for me.
— Sean Patrick Turley (@Turley33) April 3, 2025
Right?!?!?!?
Lmao!!!!😂 pic.twitter.com/9jdshs30Ez
— Andy (@andytbone2) April 3, 2025
Watching the trailer: "No, not needed. Pointless. It won't be any good" The OJ joke "Okay, it has potential". 😂
— Matt Kik (@MattKik) April 3, 2025
That last part made me choke on my drink. They actually went there, lmao. pic.twitter.com/uZJfvs8CXg
— Adam Moore (@ADDMOORE_) April 3, 2025
Do yourselves a favor and don’t market it as “from the producer of Ted”. No you market this as “from the director of Hot Rod and Popstar”. Because this will not be anything like Ted. It will be like those two movies.
— Lance FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸 ❤️ (@lancestein936) April 3, 2025
Naked Gun 44 and a 1/4th?
— local yokel (@meh_just_a_guy) April 3, 2025
Yes, we hate it when they do the ‘new movie/game with the same title as the earlier one’ thing. And in this case, we think it hurts the reception because too many people think it is a reboot or remake rather than technically being a legacy sequel. If they don't want to make it a numbered sequel, then just give it a different title, like 'The Naked Gun: Legacy' or something like that.
I really wanted to not like this trailer but it's absolutely perfect: https://t.co/47Bb8toRj9
— NotKennyRogers (@NotKennyRogers) April 3, 2025
new NAKED GUN parodying legacy sequel tropes, I'm in heaven https://t.co/T4WTvp86mc
— Brett (@BrettRedacted) April 3, 2025
True.
Also. we are pretty sure this next one is joking:
No OJ Simpson or Leslie Neilson? No thanks
— SMC (@SMC_TX) April 3, 2025
Wow crazy. I'm gonna run to blockbuster and rent Naked Gun in remembrance of them.
— SMC (@SMC_TX) April 3, 2025
Still, here’s a tip for people who loved the original movies. Not too many people know that the original ‘Naked Gun’ was based on a TV show called 'Police Squad!' … which crashed and burned after six whole episodes. But if you go back and watch it, you will see that it was almost exactly the same as the Naked Gun movies, with virtually the same cast (but no Simpson) and they even recycled some of their jokes into the movies. So, it might be worth tracking that down for a little extra of that classic humor. Here’s a trailer for it:
Yes, in 80’s we briefly had a weekly version of the Naked Gun and we didn’t watch it, so it got canceled.
On behalf of everyone who grew up at that time, we are sorry. We didn’t know how good we had it.
Typical Hollywood woke nonsense. 10 seconds into this trailer & we already see a man cross dressing as a girl! 🙄
— Izengabe (@Izengabe_) April 3, 2025
We have to think that is a joke.
Oh ,
— Forlorn Hope 🎀 (@ForlornHope09) April 3, 2025
What a way to ruin a good movie.
It needs to be Leslie Nielsen,
His deadpan delivery of the jokes made that series so memorable.
We have very bad news for him.
am i the only one who thinks this reboot is completely unnecesary?
— neo (@neolithicobject) April 3, 2025
Again, soft reboot. As in a new beginning where they don’t pretend they are starting over.
And when exactly is a comedy ‘necessary?’
They got me! At first, I thought they made a *serious* movie. But then... pic.twitter.com/0hCeK23CWp
— NewJerichoMan (@FFBallAppraiser) April 3, 2025
idk, I'm kind of charmed by this. It feels like there haven't been enough pure comedy movies recently & I'd welcome a change to that https://t.co/ScFpKYA9f9
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) April 3, 2025
Here's hoping they don't have any agenda more than 'making us laugh.'
Our own Gordon had a useful comment, but he protected his account, so we can only quote it:
Plusses:
Seth MacFarlane, though personally woke, keeps his humor even and very funny.
Liam Neeson is both a credible action star and has great comedic chops (Like Leslie Neilson before him).
Minuses:
Not seeing any Zucker involvement
Seems a little more bloody than the original
Airplane 2!
To be precise, most of the ‘Airplane!’ movies were made with the team of ‘Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker,’ meaning Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker. Abrahams passed away last year, but the Zucker brothers are still with us. We aren’t sure why they aren’t involved but it is a concern.
I'm willing to give it a chance. https://t.co/UxD2h7bJPq
— T_p_tio 🎈 (@Txp_RBI_Xctuxl) April 3, 2025
And that’s basically where this author is. We are willing to give it a chance.
Finally, we’ll leave you with a test to see how big a fan you are of the movies (and TV Show):
"Johnny, I need to reboot my movie."
— Kyle Wilson (@KyleDWilson1) April 3, 2025
"Well you're dead, so that'll be hard. What you do, see, is get a dramatic actor like you started as and really let him run wild. Here's a list of names. But you didn't get 'em from me."
"Hmm...Schindler's List guy. Not bad..." pic.twitter.com/tIfbwCVKtq
That’s it, everyone. You can go home now. He has won the Internet for the day.
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