Akiva Schaffer’s reboot of The Naked Gun found a hysterical way to honor the legacy of the franchise’s original star and spoof comedy legend Leslie Nielsen. Starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, The Naked Gun serves as a soft reboot of the iconic series from the late 1980s and early 1990s, with plenty of hidden jokes and callbacks to the originals.
Neeson stars as Frank Drebin, Jr., the son of Leslie Nielsen’s legendary police detective from the classic crime comedy show Police Squad!, which spawned the follow-up Naked Gun movie trilogy. The reboot continues the style of comedy that Nielsen made famous, with an avalanche of absurdist jokes and visual gags that continue beyond the movie’s ending.
At the beginning of the movie, there is a particularly funny bit that sees Frank, Jr. invoking his father’s blessing and help in front of a picture of his father (Nielsen), along with a dozen other officers doing the same thing right next to him. However, that wasn’t the only way that Frank Drebin “appeared” in The Naked Gun, as Schaffer found a hilarious way to honor Nielsen properly.
Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin Hilariously “Returns” In The Naked Gun
When Frank speaks to the photo of his father early in the movie, he directly notes how he wants to live up to his father’s legacy while keeping his own identity, in a fun, intentionally obvious bit of commentary about The Naked Gun movie itself. He asks his father to send him a sign if he’s following the right path, and suggests that he show him an owl as that sign.
Leslie Nielsen, who passed in 2010, obviously couldn’t appear in The Naked Gun in any context short of CGI. However, that didn’t stop Schaffer and co. from finding a brilliant way to still honor Frank Drebin in the 2025 reboot.
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The Naked Gun – Key Review Scores |
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RT Tomatometer |
RT Popcornmeter |
Metacritic Metascore |
Metacritic User Score |
IMDB Score |
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91% |
77% |
75/100 |
7.3/10 |
7.1/10 |
In the movie’s climax, Frank is left behind as the villainous Richard Cane (Danny Huston) and his followers escape on motorcycles. Right when he needs it most, a massive owl appears to assist in Frank’s pursuit. Frank grabs the owl’s talons, and it flies him across the city, swooping him low enough to kick several of Cane’s friends off their motorcycles.
During the flight, Frank treats the owl as if it is in fact his actual father in an owl’s body. It’s an appropriately absurd way to honor Leslie Nielsen’s contributions to comedy: with one of the most ridiculous gags in the entire movie. Judging by its record-breaking Rotten Tomatoes scores, The Naked Gun is a worthy homage to the Leslie Nielsen’s original movies.
The Naked Gun
8/10
- Release Date
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August 1, 2025
- Director
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Akiva Schaffer
- Writers
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Akiva Schaffer, Doug Mand, Dan Gregor
- Producers
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Erica Huggins
- Franchise(s)
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The Naked Gun
