I loved the originals growing up. It will be hard to recreate that combination of deadpan and total absurdity of the originals, but I think there are some promising signs in this teaser.
One thing I think will be interesting - Liam Neeson can do deadpan, but there’s something inherently physically intimidating about his screen presence, which Leslie Nielsen never had. I wonder how it will work for this style of comedy. And I think it’s a lot harder to pull off this style of comedy than it might seem. So much of it is about tone, facial expressions, reactions, etc. I’m glad they’re trying, though.
Director Akiva Schaffer has a solid comedy resume. Normally this kind of pointless IP humping is a bad idea, but if Schaffer thinks he can make it funny, he’s as good a choice as anyone.
This reminds me of the terrible imitation wannabe “Inspector Clouseau” movies with Steve Martin. Totally did not work. The Pink Pantherwas Peter Sellers. And in my world, Naked Gun is Leslie Nielsen. There is no substitute.
I just saw a commercial for this for the first time this morning. I also wondered-- could this possibly succeed, or will it bomb terribly? I love the old Naked Guns as well.
Casting Liam Neeson against type might work in the same way it worked for Leslie Nielsen-- he and several other actors in ‘Airplane!’ were cast specifically for their reps as dead-serious types so they could play the comedy deadpan, and it worked so well, it revived Nielsen’s career in a hard ‘deadpan comedy’ left turn. Now it’s really strange seeing him in actually serious pre-Airplane! roles.
More than Liam Neeson’s physical presence, I was wondering when I saw the commercial, how Frank Drebbin’s son managed to pick up an Irish accent. I wonder if they’ll somehow retcon it into the plot, like a long-lost son from Drebbin’s affair with an Irish lass, or just not bother since it’s a comedy and doesn’t really matter?
To be nitpicky, they were (or weren’t) Inspector Clouseau; the “Pink Panther” was either a diamond or a cartoon character, depending on your age when you first watched the live-action films in question.
As the lead, no; but he has a prominent supporting bit in an episode of Derry Girls, and he’s hilarious. To whatever extent this does or doesn’t work, he won’t be the problem.
