Favourite 'Naked Gun' style movies?

Cafe Society
61

Holy shit, I never saw that thread… And so recent, too.

Yeh, I’ve always went with Bryan Eckers interpretation on that joke. Everyone else is overthinking it. Impossible scenarios are part of the fabric of the Zucker Bros style of comedy.

Another example from Hot Shots (a non-Zucker film) is in the bar, and they cut to the female interest singing Noir-style on top the piano. They do a wide shot, but the piano top is in the open position, so she’s defying gravity while walking perfectly diagonal up the piano.

Another example of the literalism is when one of the pilots says he’s got a bogey on his tail, and they cut to a shot of Humpfrey Bogart flying the jet behind him.

62

I’m also reminded of Charlie Sheen shooting a chicken at someone.

63

I said it’s a completely different style of movie.

Under that definition, I’m pretty sure you could go with History of the World, Part I…

64

Brooks has a style close to the Zuckers, although it’s still distinctive.

65

Brooks is almost complete parody. He includes absurdism, physical comedy, pushing stereotypes, puns and even breaking the 4th wall, but his style isn’t exactly Zucker’s.

66

With a name like Zucker’s, it’s got to be good!

I’ll refrain from posting non-Zuckeresque films (almost mentioned Galaxy Quest before it blew up here – and I do see the distinction now).

67

They do have a story and that’s why they work. Take all the jokes from the Naked Gun and you’re still left with a pretty decent detective story. Drebin has a character arc and a stake in the story. You want to see how he solves the case and are invested in his success. Unlike the Friedberg/Seltzer movies that are a series of haphazardly put together scenes of dated pop-culture references with the laziest of segues. Most of the time their movies don’t even have a resolution. They just end (in a dance sequence).

For a lark compare the Wikipedia plot entry for The Naked Gun with Meet the Spartans.

68

Am I the only one that actually liked Airplane 2?

It wasn’t a comedy gem like it’s predecessor, but I thought it was a solid, funny movie/

69

I liked it. It’s enough like its predecessor that I frequently misremember jokes from it as being from the original. (recently, the “We’re also out of coffee” scene)

70

Is it as good as the original? No. Does it make up for it with Shatner? Yes.

71

After seeing many of the movies mentioned here I thought you might be interested in this. Every Tuesday & Wednesday this month on TCM they’re showing comedies from each decade. All the films are uncut with no commercials and feature:
Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder, Peter Sellers, Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, Leslie Neilsen, W.C. Fields and many, many more.
Here’s the schedule (all times EST)

Tuesday, Sept. 6 (the silent era Part 1)
8:00 PM **The Golden Age of Comedy **(documentary)
9:30 PM **Tillie’s Punctured Romance **(1914)
11:06PM **A Flirt’s Mistake **(1914)
11:15PM Mabel’s Wilful Way (1915)
11:30PM Mickey (1918)
1:03 AM Spring Fever (1919)
1:15 AM **Seven Years Bad Luck **(1921)
2:30 AM **Coney Island **(1917)
3:00 AM **Yankee Doodle In Berlin (**1919)
4:15 AM **Our Gang **(1922)
4:44 AM Harold Lloyd (documentary)
5:03 AM 100 Years At The Movies (documentary)

Wednesday, Sept. 7 (the silent era Part 2)
8:00 PM The Birth of the Tramp (documentary)
9:15 PM A Dog’s Life (1918)
10:00PM **The Circus **(1928)
11:30PM **One Week **(1920)
12:00 AM **Steamboat Bill Junior **(1928)
1:15 AM **Harold Lloyd’s World of Comedy **(documentary)
3:00 AM Number, Please? (1920)
3:30 AM Speedy (1928)
5:05 AM **Anna Case In “La Fiesta” **(1926)
5:15 AM Charley My Boy! (1926)
5:47 AM Roseland (1930)

Tuesday, Sept. 13 (the 1930’s)
8:00 PM Dollar Dizzy (1930)
8:30 PM **The Pip from Pittsburg **(1931)
9:00 PM **Sons of the Desert **(1933)
10:15PM The Music Box (1932)
11:00PM **A Night at the Opera **(1935)
12:45PM **Hips, Hips, Hooray **(1934)
2:00 AM Elmer the Great (1933)
3:30 AM Movie Crazy (1932)
5:15 AM Sweet Music (1935)
7:00 AM **Gold Diggers in Paris **(1938)

Wednesday, Sept. 14 (the 1940’s)
8:00 PM **The Bank Dick **(1940)
9:30 PM **Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein **(1948)
11:00PM A Southern Yankee (1948)
12:45 AM **The Inspector General **(1949)
2:30 AM Always Leave Them Laughing (1949)
4:30 AM The Palm Beach Story (1942)

Tuesday, Sept. 20 (the 1950’s)
8:00 PM **Mon Oncle **(1958)
10:00PM The Long, Long Trailer (1954)
12:00 AM Scared Stiff (1953)
1:45 AM Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959)
3:15 AM The Good Humor Man (1950)
4:45 AM Carry On Teacher (1962)

Wednesday, Sept. 21 (the 1960’s)
8:00 PM **It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World **(1963)
11:15 PM The Great Race (1965)
2:00 AM A Shot In The Dark (1964)
4:00 AM **The Party **(1968)
5:45 AM **Le Grand Amour (**1969)

Tuesday, Sept. 27 (the 1970’s)
8:00 PM** Bananas **(1971)
9:30 PM Young Frankenstein (1974)
11:30PM **Foul Play **(1978)
1:30 AM **The Three Musketeers **(1973)
3:30 AM The Gumball Rally (1976)
5:30 AM The Frisco Kid (1979)

Wednesday, Sept. 28 (the 1980’s and beyond)
8:00 PM **The Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad! **(1988)
9:45 PM **Top Secret! **(1984)
11:30PM Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
1:15 AM Strange Brew (1983)
3:00 AM Sidewalk Stories (1989)

72

It suffered from too many call backs from the first movie but had some really great bits. The Macho Grande scene I quoted above is one of my favorites.

73

A sort-of British ‘Police Squad!’ is ‘A Touch of Cloth’ which is at least partly written by Charlie Brooker of Black Mirror (minor) fame. I’ve only seen the first (feature-length) episode, and was very impressed. But you would need a fair knowledge of British police procedurals’ clichés to get the most out of it.

74

I’ve seen a lot of British crime serials. But hell, if Charlie Brooker is responsible, I’m seeking it out.

Can’t wait for Black Mirror season 3 on Netflix!

75

I’d consider The Marx Brothers’ movies to be the spiritual ancestors of Naked Gun type movies. Absurdist dialogue, clever word-play, plots that are secondary to the jokes but still actual plots. The visual humour was more slapstick then much of the Zuckers’ visual puns but I think that all the primary ingredients are there.

My $.02 - DESK

76

this is an easy one just look up any movie leslie neilsen made between 1980 and on … its all he did for about 20 years other than guest spots on his friends tv shows

77

There’s also Sledgehammer! from back in the 80’s. I loved that show when I was a kid, but don’t know how well it holds up, being I haven’t seen it since I was a kid.

I never saw most of the movies it was parodying, but knew of most of them, and found it very funny. It’s got a really good cast, too. First movie I remember seeing Chris Evans in. The Prom Tonight musical number alone makes it well worth watching.

78

Solid!

79

I think the only foolproof criteria for this thread is to wait til Disposable Hero watches a movie in question, and then we see if s/he has the same reaction to it as to a ‘Naked Gun’ movie.

I could see me starting a thread “Damn, I wanta find another *‘Rat Race’ *movie!” And I really wouldn’t be sure if your suggestion rang the same bells as RR until I tried it.

Side note: If you started a thread like this, what film would you want to find more of?
(For me, probably ‘The Rocketeer’…)

80

I’m not sure what Rat Race is doing in this thread. If it belongs to the genre, so does the vastly superior It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t put either film in the Airplane!-style sight-gag genre, nor should any film fit if it couldn’t incorporate a scene where someone gives deadpan and contradictory orders to conjoined siblings.