Only one man has the particular set of skills – to lead Police Squad and save the world.

The world wasn’t exactly crying out for another movie in ‘The Naked Gun’ series but it is a seeming inevitability that every moderately successful movie from the past will be rebooted for modern audiences, and ‘The Naked Gun’ has proven no exception. With star of the series Leslie Nielsen sadly departed, it turns to a new actor to take on the mantle of the hapless police detective Frank Drebin, or rather Frank Drebin Jr. in order to give a sense of continuity (and perhaps to provide the opportunity for the movie’s funniest joke – sadly, also in the trailer). That man is Liam Neeson, taking a break from generic action thrillers to show off his comedic chops.

You’ve seen a Naked Gun movie before so you know that the plot is window dressing to the deadpan one-liners, slapstick comedy and bumbling about of the central character, and this is no exception. I won’t deny I did laugh on occasion, but those laughs were few and far between in a movie that feels like it’s desperate to be as good as its predecessors without ever really getting at the essence of what made them tick. Neeson plays Drebin Jr. as a bit too knowing for my liking, whereas Nielsen really excelled because he genuinely played the part as if it was a serious role. From an ‘acting’ perspective he is fine, as is Pamela Anderson as his love interest (now apparently off screen too) and Danny Huston as the main villain. Paul Walter Hauser also appears as Drebin Jr’s sidekick and I wished we’d seen more of him, as he’s proven a terrific comedic actor in other movies.

It is wisely less than 90 minutes so it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome, but even across that time I thought this was a fairly tiresome reboot that fails to recapture the daft humour that made the original trilogy such a hit. Pretty much what I expected going in to be fair!

Rating: 2/5

Directed By: Akiva Schaffer

Starring: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, CCH Pounder and Kevin Durand 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3402138/