Writing about spoofs is type of like dancing about structure: Movie critics virtually by no means receives a commission to do it. Certainly, Akiva Schaffer’s “The Bare Gun” is likely to be the primary theatrically distributed film of its type because the likes of “They Got here Collectively” (2014), “Fifty Shades of Black” (2016), and “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018), all of which already felt like relics from a time when audiences have been accustomed to such gleefully absurd gag-a-thons — a time when males have been males, girls have been girls, and O.J. Simpson was a Scandinavian detective named Nordberg.
We used to reside in a rustic the place comedy was a whole style unto itself, versus a quick distraction {that a} squinty-eyed Chris Pratt tried in useless to seek for between motion scenes. However excellent news! Similar to open political bribery and a monopolistic management over the leisure trade, Paramount is taking a daring step in the direction of making theatrical comedies viable once more.
And whereas the prospect of retooling a cop sendup like “The Bare Gun” might sound to smack of the identical reactionary conservatism that has spurred the remainder of America’s current comeback tales (e.g., measles, coal mines, the McDonald’s Snack Wrap), Schaffer’s model manages to seize the traditional spoof magic with out turning again the clock. That’s a fragile tango within the context of an more and more uncommon — or all however out of date — studio film that exists for no different function than to make folks snigger, but it surely’s one this hilarious new tackle the previous ZAZ masterpiece pulls off with a rose between its enamel.
Here’s a comedy that pines for the way in which issues have been with out sacrificing any of the progress we’ve made to convey them again. A comedy that continuously makes use of the actual world to arrange its jokes, however seldom depends on it to ship their punchlines — and tends to land some unbelievable haymakers every time it does. A comedy that references the whole lot from Elon Musk to racially motivated police violence with out letting its virtues get in the way in which of its laughs, and even trots out the r-word in a scene that has the facility to make activists and edgelords alike each cackle on the identical joke (though the Elon stand-in is clearly meant to be the butt of it). Whereas that alternative may sound just like the symptom of a feckless film that’s afraid of alienating some portion of its viewers, in context, it epitomizes how brilliantly this “Bare Gun” navigates the distinction between timeless stupidity and retrograde insanity.
And boy oh boy, is it teeming with the primary a kind of issues. Simply to get it out of the way in which: “The Bare Gun” is nearly objectively the funniest film of the 12 months — not as a result of its humor will hit each viewers as laborious because it did mine (I don’t suppose I’ve seen a room filled with critics howl that arduous because the Lemmons scene in “The Wolf of Wall Road”), however fairly as a result of nothing else has aimed for even a fraction of the identical laughs. Different 2025 movies have jokes; this one is jokes (even the title card is a incredible goof), and most of these jokes are actually, actually, actually fucking humorous.
Even those that aren’t get pleasure from being delivered by Liam Neeson, who brilliantly subverts his late-career display persona as an outside-the-law vigilante — and revisits the gravelly deadpan he dropped at his two-faced law-enforcer in “The Lego Film” — for an impressed comedian efficiency worthy of the Drebin household identify. Grizzled and indignant the place his Police Squad daddy (Leslie Nielsen) was daft and entitled, Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. is a widowed copper struggling to play by the foundations in a brand new period of police accountability.
Frank longs for the times when a badge allowed a middle-aged white man to play god; the times when cops didn’t must faux like there have been penalties for capturing folks, and there wasn’t any bodycam footage of him utilizing his gun to chop the toilet line at a espresso store. It’s like Frank’s world stopped shifting ahead when his spouse died (he nonetheless makes use of a TiVo), and now he’s simply doing what he can to maintain it on its axis. And in addition consuming a whole lot of espresso. A lot espresso. A recent cup is handed to him from off-screen in virtually each different scene.
Past that, this legacy sequel adheres to the identical previous story as David Zucker’s first “The Bare Gun” movie. Not within the “boy finds woman, boy loses woman, woman finds boy, boy forgets woman, boy remembers woman, woman dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New 12 months’s Day” type of method, however within the “Frank swoons for a smoky-voiced femme fatale whereas making an attempt to resolve a case that hinges on a wealthy businessman’s plan of utilizing mind-control on the plenty” type of method, full with the standard noir affectations.
The brand new bombshell is a blonde named Beth (Pamela Anderson, paying pleasant homage to Priscilla Presley), and her brother has simply been discovered lifeless in his don’t name it a Tesla on the backside of a lake. All indicators level again to his trillionaire boss Richard Cane (Danny Huston, having the time of his life), whose electrical automotive revolution is secretly funding a much more sinister plan. A plan that solely Beth, Frank, and his accomplice Capt. Ed Hocken Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser, giving fantastic straight man because the son of George Kennedy’s character) have the facility to cease earlier than it threatens to tear an irreparable gap into the guts of the social material. Absurdity ensues.
On the danger of overstating the sociopolitical relevance of a film wherein the henchmen patiently wait in a single-file line whereas a “prospects served” scoreboard retains observe of those who Frank has already karate-chopped within the neck, such ridiculousness finds new buy in a world that not makes a lick of rattling sense. Recognizing that audiences are extra primed than ever to snigger on the sort of straight-faced absurdity that passes itself off as seriousness, Schaffer and his co-writers Dan Gregor and Doug Mand merely — if additionally expertly — give us permission to do this once more.
This “Bare Gun” doesn’t train folks learn how to watch it, bend over backwards making an attempt to maintain up with the occasions (post-ZAZ reference factors like “Mission: Unimaginable — Fallout” are both launched with near-miraculous magnificence, or used to make Frank look like a residing anachronism), or belabor the necessity for its personal existence in a too-siloed world determined for strangers to snigger collectively once more. For one factor, movie critics are comfortable to do this for them. For an additional, to overplay this legacy sequel as some sort of corrective would essentially contradict the ethos of a film in regards to the perils of residing prior to now. “The Bare Gun” doesn’t say we have now to return a lot because it makes a case for steadying ourselves because the world lurches ahead.
Some issues are too necessary to depart behind — like, as an illustration, the notion that stupidity could be a lovely drive for good, and never simply an infinite gasoline provide for evil. Like all actually nice movies (“Tokyo Story,” “How Inexperienced Was My Valley,” “Saving Silverman,” et al.), “The Bare Gun” was barely a minute previous earlier than it had me shaking my head and muttering “so dumb” to myself with an enormous grin on my face. A number of the jokes fall flat after all, and a number of other of one of the best ones from the trailers and TV spots aren’t within the 80-minute ultimate lower in any respect (which, together with the obtrusive absence of Nordberg’s son, is sufficient to counsel the potential for a “Wake Up, Ron Burgundy”-style alternate model), however the gags fly at you so quick that even the occasional whiff appears like a distant reminiscence a number of seconds after it lands.
And whereas I want the entire thing may have been even denser with throwaway sight gags and liminal ADR soundbites, Schaffer compensates for his relative inexperience with pure spoofs — which require a barely completely different comedian muscle than the one he labored on a extra character-driven mockumentary like “Popstar: By no means Cease By no means Stopping” — by guaranteeing that each comedian setpiece is a complete dwelling run. One sees a riff on the collection’ traditional love montage spiral into “Too Many Cooks”-esque delirium. One other, equally magnificent sequence builds to a bit worthy of the Louvre as Frank tries to flee an electrical automotive earlier than it drives him into the ocean. The half with henchman Kevin Durand and the thermal goggles? It needs to be too acquainted to crush prefer it does, however generally a superb canine is all you might want to breathe recent life right into a traditional.
Whereas it’s a gentle disgrace “The Bare Gun” peters out somewhat bit towards the top (not less than earlier than rebounding in the course of the credit), it’s much more of a disgrace that it has to finish in any respect. Inviting folks to snigger their heads off collectively in public is likely one of the best and most inspiring issues the films have the facility to do, and watching this one in a packed multiplex just some days after sitting by means of “Joyful Gilmore 2” in silence on the sofa at dwelling needs to be sufficient to persuade anybody that it’s a criminal offense for studios to let comedies go straight to streaming. Fortunate for us, Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. is extraordinarily on the case.
Grade: B+
Paramount Photos will launch “The Bare Gun” in theaters on Friday, August 1
Wish to keep updated on IndieWire’s movie critiques and demanding ideas? Subscribe right here to our newly launched publication, In Overview by David Ehrlich, wherein our Chief Movie Critic and Head Evaluations Editor rounds up one of the best new critiques and streaming picks together with some unique musings — all solely out there to subscribers.