My favorite comedy of all time is Airplane!. I would say that my second favorite comedy of all time is The Naked Gun. This movie mixes great lines, great humor, scattered slapstick, and even a funny story together to come up with hundreds of laughs, even on the 15th viewing. Naturally since this is my second favorite comedy of all time, I’ll give it five stars. Use caution if you drink a soda during this movie: because it feels weird when you laugh it out your nose.

We open on a scene in the Middle East, where a meeting of the greatest terrorists in the world is taking place. You have Omar Khadafi, Ayatolla Khomeini, some African general, Yasser Arafat, and Mikhail Gorbachev. They are discussing a terrorist plot that will make the world realize what the Americans are: fat, whiny, weak, pansy, dog-eating …

Enter our hero! Fresh on a little R&R he has infiltrated their meeting. He starts beating all of the guys up, using the Three Stooges eye attack on one, wiping off Gorbachev’s birthmark on another, and ripping off Khomeini's turban (apparently he has a red Mohawk underneath). “Who are you?”, moans one of the terrorists. “Lieutenant Frank Drebin, Police Squad, and don’t you forget it!” as he falls out the window.

The story essentially revolves around a plot to kill the Queen of England. While we get there we visit Nordberg, a sadistic murderer who gets away … Oh, no, wait – that’s in real life. In this film O.J. Simpson is the happy slapstick humor guy. He tries to enter a place where there is a drug bust, but when he kicks in the door only his foot goes in. After he fumbles around with the door, naturally all of the bad guys are waiting for him. After he gets shot eight times, he stumbles into every trap the writers can think of – wet paint, a hot stove, a bear trap, and so forth.

Meanwhile, Drebin’s squad is assigned to protect the queen. In a series of missteps – including one of the better bathroom gags out there, and another in which he sexually assaults a woman with a concrete dildo, he is removed from the force. Now he has to get back his position, win the girl’s heart, and save the queen, all by the end of 85 minutes.

A significant portion of the movie is funny situations. In one, we find Drebin chasing a doctor who was trying to murder Nordberg! The doctor stops a car: “medical emergency!”, he yells at the driver as he throws the driver out of the car and speeds off. Drebin stops the next car: “Police emergency!”, he shouts, as he gets in the back seat. “Follow that car”. At this point we find John Houseman saying in his quiet, old man’s voice: “all right. Put it in drive. Check your mirrors. That’s right. Now slowly pull into traffic.” It is now that we learn that Drebin has expropriated the car of a student driver, complete with a very stoic teacher.

This story also gives out some great lines. An example during this scene include Houseman's soothing voice: “now normally, you would not be going sixty the wrong way down a one way street.” As they are speeding the wrong direction down the one a street, we hear a truck horn. This is followed by Houseman’s gentle voice: “apply the brake, put it into reverse, now gently accelerate,” as a truck barrels at them going the opposite direction. And as the driver of the truck yells “Watch where you’re going, you crazy broad!”, Houseman says “Stephanie, gently extend your arm. Extend your middle finger. Very good, well done.”

The film is romantically happy as well. It is your classic love story: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl gets another boy, boy thinks of girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Years Day. In this film the lovers are Drebin and Jane Spencer, played by an attractive Priscilla Presley. The end isn't quite sappy: there is no tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl. But the boy does get the girl, and people are so happy that there are even Palestinians hugging Jews. Why can’t they do that in real life?

The film had so many funny lines and situations that one very rarely stops laughing. I have seen this film many, many times, and each time I find new things to laugh at. This is one thing that makes is my second favorite. I don’t think there are quite as many gags as Airplane!, but a film that causes me to laugh this much the first time through, and then continue to laugh during additional visits, gets five stars from me.

PG-13 for some adult themes and a curse word or two.

85 minutes

Our cast:

Leslie Nielsen, Lt. Frank Drebin, the bumbling cop
Priscilla Presley, Jane Spencer, his love interest, a girl with a nice beaver.
Ricardo Montalban, Vincent Ludwig, the villain, that even Mother Teresa wants to kill.
George Kennedy, Capt. Ed Hocken, Drebin’s boss, whose father also died by being run over by a steamroller.
O.J. Simpson, Det. Nordberg, who is famous because he was a football player.
Susan Beaubian , Wilma Nordberg, his crying wife. Maybe she knows something we don’t know.
Nancy Marchand, Mayor Barkley, the one who fires Drebin for sexual assault with a concrete dildo.
Raye Birk, Papshmir, the financier of the plot to assassinate:
Jeannette Charles, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, who doesn’t exactly understand baseball.
'Weird Al' Yankovic, Weird Al Yankovic, for what is a comedy without Weird Al?
Winifred Freedman, Stephanie, the driving student
John Houseman, her very mellow driving instructor

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older