The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

I feel like this movie was a little funnier than the second Naked Gun, although it again didn't stand up to the first. That was pretty obviously unlikely from the beginning though, so I mostly just tried to enjoy it for what it was, the most 1994'd 1994 movie to ever 1994 in 1994. I still feel like this style of comedy feels like it belongs in the 80s, but so much of the actual content just screams out 1994. O.J. Simpson's back, right before the whole trial thing blew up. Anna Nicole Smith is the stunt casted famous-for-little-reason hot chick who causes trouble, at the height of her good looks. The final act of the movie takes place during an Oscar telecast, and it's stuffed to the brim with people who were more famous then than they are now, like Weird Al, Vanna White, Florence Henderson, Olympia Dukakis, Elliot Gould, and Raquel Welch. A bit of it's funny in places, although it mostly seems like forced celebrity ball washing after the funnier first hour of the film. It's hard to remember the funnier bits now all of about a week later, but there's some solid jokes revolving around a prison escape and marital troubles that kept me entertained enough to keep watching. There's really a boatload of familiar faces everywhere you look, and while it's far from the pinnacle of edgy comedy, it's hard to dislike too. Not brilliant but certainly watchable if you like Leslie Nielsen.

The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear

David Zucker's political shift is weird to me. Here he is making a movie all about environmental conservation and energy efficiency twenty years ago, and now he's making crap like An American Carol. Apparently he's still pro environment though. What's important is that he used to make funny movies. The sequel to the first Naked Gun movie doesn't have quite the same pizazz, as it covers a lot of the same ground and doesn't have a lot of truly memorable jokes. It has its moments, and it can be funny just to watch Leslie Nielsen eat dinner. But when you have a mundane premise for your wacky comedy like a cop trying to stop some evil industry executives, it takes a whole lot to keep the mood right the whole time. And it's still weird watching O.J. Simpson act the part of blundering sidekick (He murdered his ex-wife and her friend and got away with it).

Uh... man. I hate when this happens. Robert Goulet is a capable slimy villain and Priscilla Presley returns still competent in her role as Attractive Woman with Decent Comedic Ability which a movie like this always needs, despite being a bit old for it. Um. There's a scene where Nielsen fights off a goon in a bathroom that's pretty good. They're having that typical movie style fight where they're constantly grabbing items to use as makeshift weapons, but it's goofy shit like electric toothbrushes. It's funnier if you watch it. Though most of the jokes in the movie are like that.