The Wasteland Reviewer

The Wasteland Gems: The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

How do you choose what to watch on all those streaming services you have access to? There are so many options that it is just overwhelming. These services constantly release new content and overshadow all the great films from the past that are already there and ready to watch. Now there is The Wasteland Gems! Here is a great film on streaming right now that you should check out this weekend:

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

Where did the wild tale of Detective Frank Drebin all begin? With the release of The Naked Gun from Akiva Schaffer, a lot of attention is being brought onto this character as well as the original franchise that launched this hapless detective into the pop culture sphere. The combination of Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker has created some of the greatest spoof films of all time. Airplane! started it all and turned a solid dramatic actor in Leslie Nielsen into one of the premiere deadpan comedic performers in film. But it would be Detective Drebin that would be the role that would become the legacy of Nielson’s career and The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! would become one of the most beloved comedies of all time.

But what makes this film so funny? There are endless gags. That is no exaggeration either because the whole entire runtime is just stuffed with comedic gags everywhere. Background sight gags. Sarcasm. Word play. Slapstick. Foreground sight gags. Awkward situations. Toilet humor. Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker delivers it all. Even the opening credits are hilarious with a runaway police car driving in all the weirdest places with the camera mounted to the lights. The background sight gag has become one of the trademarks of this comedy crew. There are plenty of hilarious gaps with Drebin’s strange noir voiceover, the constant communication issues between characters, and wild car chases (with some not even with a driver). The money exchange for information gag is a classic as is the dead body outline floating in the bay. The screenplay is just littered with dumb yet hilarious jokes that will make you laugh for the whole 85-minute runtime.

But who is the real MVP of the whole experience? Nielsen, of course. His dry, dead pan approach is the perfect ingredient to make this film so much fun. Nielsen never once treats his performance as a comedic one. His straight-man attitude puts him hilariously at odds with the silly, dumb, and goofy tone of the rest of the film. Nielsen has plenty of great moments, but that dry delivery of his dialogue is just excellent. “Just think, the next time I shoot someone, I could be arrested”. “Let me slip into something more comfortable”. “It’s like eating a spoonful of Drano; sure, it’ll clean you out, but it’ll leave you hollow inside”. All of them hit so well. Nielsen’s completely committed performance allows him to be made to look like an idiot plenty of times.

But is there more to The Naked Gun than just a bunch of silly gags? To be honest, it really doesn’t have to be. The combination of the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker writing and Nielsen, makes this an endlessly funny comedic romp to enjoy. But there are some great supporting turns as well from Nielsen’s straight-man, George Kennedy, and Drebin’s love interest, Priscilla Presley, and the charming and cool antagonist, Ricardo Montalban. When you have supporting players like that, you are in good hands. Then you have all the subtle (and not so subtle) jabs at police corruption and incompetence. The Naked Gun is a solid commentary on the police system of the United States in the 1980s (which is unfortunately still relevant in 2025). Sure, this is a big dumb comedy, but Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker can find some depth and themes to explore as well.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is streaming on Paramount+.