I just got done watching the first Naked Gun on TNN. I havent seen this movie in years. I have to admit, this moive is still very funny. I got tired of this still of comedy very quickly because it seemed as though every one was trying to make a naked gun for ten years after this came out. But this one holds up well. Some good humor there. Its on par with Airplane! for yucks. Check it out if you used to like it but gave up on that genre. Its still a hoot.
Or, if you get the chance, watch the original series “Police Squad”. They have a lot of the same jokes (Lady: “Is this some kind of bust?”, Cop (checking her out): “Why, yes. Very nice.”). They didn’t last long on TV but the shows also hold up well. Watch the opening sequences for the “special guest star”. The guest star always gets killed off before the show even starts.
Yup, I reckon Police Squad had the edge.
“Who are you, and how did you get in here?”
“I’m a locksmith, and I’m a locksmith.”
“I’ve never been to that nightclub!”
“Oh?” (Holds up club’s matchbook)“How do you explain this then?”
“Well, they’re little pieces of paper with sulfur on the tips, and when you strike them…” (etc etc)
I caught a few minutes of Naked Gun last night and did get quite a chuckle out of it. The part at the baseball game is hilarious. I remember seeing that in the theater when it first came out and leaving with actual aching sides.
I always thought it was strange how everybody in that film was too old for the parts they played. Leslie Neilsen, supposedly a cop in mid-career, was 62 at the time. George Kennedy, his partner of about the same age, was 63. Priscilla Presley, the young ingenue, was 43. Even O. J. Simpson, as the sidekick new to the police force, was 41. These roles would have gone to people 15 years younger if there was any attempt at realism.
None of this detracts from the fact that the film is hilarious. In fact, it adds a weird edge to the film.
Yeah, I usually have to wait a year or two inbetween viewings so I can laugh at all the jokes again. I’ve seen this movie so many times that I know all its nuances by heart.
And for the record, when I finally sat down and watched CASABLANCA last year, I found THE NAKED GUN had ruined, ruined the ending for me. “The problems of two people may not amount to a hill of beans in this world, but this is our hill. . . and these are our beans.”
I also think 2 1/2 is pretty funny (“I’ve been swimming in raw sewage. I love it!”), but 33 1/3 probably shouldn’t have been made.
By all means get Police Squad and More Police Squad. They only made six episodes (by choice, I understand) circa 1982, and they’re all on those two tapes. The didn’t repeat too mny jokes for the first two Naked Gun movies, but the third move uses a lot of jokes from the series. They must’ve been running low on creativity by then.
The Police Squad! shows are really, really great, especially if you view them all together.
They parody the conventions of 1960s police dramas (especially the Quinn Martin ones, with their pretentious “Prologs” and “Epilogs” – note that in Police Squad the episode names as announced don’t match the title cards)), bragging “In Color!” at the beginning of each (in 1982, who wasn’t in color?) and having a “Freeze Frame” at the end, over which the credits roll. Except that they “Froze” by just having the actors stand still. There was a separate “gag” for each episode revolving around the freeze.
Finally, they mention the names of all the villains that get sent up to “Stateville Prison” at the end of each episode. And it gets longer with each additional episode, because somebody else gets sent up every week. (It helps to watch these in the proper order).
Just wanted to say that I would kill to get the Police Squad! episodes on DVD!
The urban legend I had heard at the time said that the show got cancelled because it was too confusing to viewers – they actually had to pay attention to follow the story. Not sure if it’s true or not, but I definitely didn’t want to leave my seat whenever an episode is on…
I also think Police Squad wasn’t intended to be only 6 episodes…
But it couldn’t compete with the likes of Joanie Loves Chachi and Bosom Buddies on television. Oh well…
Originally posted by jaimest
Is that even possible?