Surreal and irreverent brand of comedy that had looked so refreshing at the hands of David Zucker, Jim Abrachams and Jerry Zucker (ZAZ) predictably began to look stale and formulaic when members of the trio went their separate ways. That included Naked Gun, film franchise based on their cult television show Police Squad!. By the time of third instalment, 1994 film Naked Gun 33 1/3: Final Insult, David Zucker, director of first two films, looked tired and gave directorial reins to Peter Segal, probably even aware that the third part of the series will become last.
Leslie Nielsen again returns in the role of Lieutenant Frank Drebin, member of elite Police Squad. Film begins after he has married his long time girlfriend Jane Spencer (played by Priscilla Presley) and tried to settle down and start family. This meant that he had to retire from the force, which is something he has trouble adaptating. Thankfully, his old colleagues Captain Ed Hocken (played by George Kennedy) and Detective Nordberg (played by O. J. Simpson) asks him to get reinstated and go undercover in a mission to thwart terrorist attack ordered by Phampshir (played by Raye Birk). One of the clues leads to Tanya Peters (played by Anna Nicole Smith), nurse at fertility clinic whose boyfriend Rocco Dillon (played by Fred Ward) is in prison. In order to get the information, Drebin is brought to prison under the guise of convicted criminal and, in order to gain Rocco’s trust, decises to help him escape.
Despite Zucker working only as co-writer and producer, Naked Gun 33 1/3 is as good as previous film, but this, frankly, doesn’t mean much. While most of the returning cast, Leslie Nielsen, does solid job in roles that they could have played in their sleep, new additions are in most cases relegated to glorified cameos. Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith was obviously cast on the account of her celebrity and not her acting ability and she deservedly later got Razzie for Worst Actress. Fred Ward is adequate in the role of villain, Kathleen Freeman is solid in the role of his mother while David Grifasi probably does best work in the small but memorable role of television director near the end. Some gags and segments are better than the others – like the opening, which spoofs De Palma’s The Untouchables or finale which mocks Oscars (and spoofs finale of The Bodygurad - but the general quality of the humour is poor. Like so many 1990s parodies, Naked Gun 33 1/3 goes for cheap jokes dealing with bodily fluids or trying to exploit popularity of certain recent films. In case of Crying Game the joke is almost identical to the joke used in another, more successful comedy Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. This film, despite lack of enthusiasm among critics, had commercial success, although smaller than with previous two instalments. It could be argued that the actual end of the series was brought by events in real life – O. J. Simpson being accused for double murders. This was his last feature film and the very last scene in which he appears in macabre ways predicts his infamous car chase. Because of that Naked Gun 33 1/3 looks like a sad way to end comedy series.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417 Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
