The Naked Gun 2 1/2: What Makes This A Great Sequel?

the joke that makes the Naked Gun 2 and a half the smell of fear really great is relatively subtle in fact as a child watching this movie over and over again it went right over my head only recently after releasing the episode we visited dedicated to the original a gun and discussing the sequels with a friend I was clued in on why the sequel is actually so funny you see my friend told me that the whole point of the movie is that the bad guys which are conglomerate of nuclear coal and oil industry villains want to prevent Richard Griffiths Dr mimer from presenting a speech to the president urging a change to the country's oil policy the whole movie is about preventing the speech mimer is kidnapped and replaced by a double to stop it from happening our hero lesy neon's Frank drebin has to save mimer so he can present his speech which he eventually does but the best joke is the fact that when mimer gives his speech he's so boring and it's so dull that everyone listening to it including the president falls asleep and never actually hears it making the whole plot totally meaningless and that my friends is why the Naked Gun 2 and a half the smell of beer is a gem you'll never get away with this hburg whatever it is granted nothing comes close to the original but it's well worth revisit and actually holds up pretty well the first movie was one of the biggest box office hits of 1988 making a follow-up obviously a no-brainer while Zer Abram Zucker passed on making airplane 2 they had no such qualms about bringing back Frank drebin for another installment however Jerry zucker's involvement would be limited as he had become one of the hottest non-comedy directors in town the previous year's ghost was a blockbuster so he was on board but as an executive producer only the same went for Jim Abrams who did two milder than usual comedies big business and welcome home Roxy carmichel before making another comedy Blockbuster of his own for the summer of 1991 HotShots which came out just a month after this and both movies were hits David Zucker was the one that was left to direct this with Pat proft his co-writer from the first film helping him with the screenplay while more scattershot than the first movie it's still quite funny even if it's arguably more dated than the first in its Reliance on George Bush humor with John work nailing the impression at the time the energy debate was in full swing with words like ozone layer making their way into the headlines while ecological disasters such as the Exxon Val's oil spill which wound up being sazed in the film were everywhere pretty much the whole cast returned for this with ogj Simpsons nordberg getting an expanded role after his comic performance won raves in the first film again lesie neelsen is in top form playing a role that fits him perfectly around this time neelen was fully embracing his new comedy stardom showing up on talk shows in full dreon mode with his handy fart box never too far from his reach I remember neelon popping up on pretty much all the big talk shows of the time especially Donna Hugh to whom he Sports an uncanny resemblance Neil was so in love with the role that in some ways he played the part in all of his personal appearances until the day he died indeed they even played Iron newborn's theme from The Naked Gun at his funeral as he was laid to rest it's kind of beautiful because I don't know that any actor has ever had more fun in a role than neelen had in these movies this one sees Frank dreadman in Washington receiving a prestigious award from the president for most drug dealers killed inexplicably his whole police squad unit is with him and when someone tries to blow up a renewable energy Depot dreon and his gang are called in to investigate of course Priscilla Presley's Jane who left Frank sometime after the first film now lives and works in Washington and works at the Debo and is dating a smoothie named Quinton hapsburg played by the famed Robert goulay several years before will frell memorably sazed him on Saturday Night Live Frank of course is convinced that Habsburg is behind the whole scheme and of course Frank despite his incredible stupidity is right as in other movies the admittedly thin plot is just an excuse for hijinks most of which are pretty funny including a great sequence set at the Blue Note jazz bar for the depressed Priscilla Pressley is once again the perfect foil for neelen and looks Dynamite as a redhe head and their chemistry is spot on both George Kennedy and OJ Simpson get more to do in this one and they get him in the action with dman as he tries to foil the evil big energy Syndicate the funniest bits in the movie included lik the homage to the pottery scene in ghost which of course was made by one of the directors of the first film Cherry if features what will become one of my favorite running gags in the series where anytime dr's body is shown in closeup it's that of a hulking Schwarz and Egger style bodybuilder a reference to a then ongoing Scandal where Hollywood actors were using body doubles it climaxes pun intended with the greatest ever Montage of phallic sequences ever put to film I also love the faux ads for oil coal and nuclear power with the two-tailed dog in the nuclear one always making me crack up and while he's no Ricardo monoban who is Rober gou seems to enjoy sending up his image as the movies villain making perhaps the first time a bad guy was ever named after the infamously imbred Austrian royal family Richard griffi is also really funny in this with his dual role as Dr mimer and his double Texan name Earl hacker and once again Weird Al Yankovic turns up in a cameo the movie was a Smash Hit at the box office with it outg grossing the first film and notably knocking Robin Hood prince of Thieves from the top spot at the box office it was the 10th biggest hit of the year and helped cement Lassie Nelson's Fame as the world's funniest senior citizen it's not too hard to imagine that the series might have continued beyond the very successful third film had you know co-star OJ Simpson not become better known for well let's just say things other than comedy but alas that's a story for another [Music] time [Music] oh [Music]

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Length: 6min 35sec (395 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 04 2024