No wonder my Showcase has this playing in the smallest theaters in the complex. Under no pretense is this good.
I love how the article spins it as "respectable" and that it cost "only $42 million" when a $15-$17 mil opening weekend virtually guarantees it's only going to be profitable once it exits theaters. If that.
Naked Gun Trailer (OJ Joke)
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AndyDursin
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Monterey Jack
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Re: Naked Gun Trailer (OJ Joke)
8.5/10
I thought this was terrific, myself, 85 minutes (more like 77 sans credits, but the credits are studded with good gags in and of themselves) of almost non-stop guffaws with only a handful of brief dead spots. Most "spoof" movies in recent years have fallen into the trap of either confusing references with actual jokes (like those ghastly "Seltzerberg" movies of the mid-to-late 2000s) or else filling the frame with scatalogical excess, and while this isn't a movie above fart jokes, it spaces them out with a bevy of sharp observational humor, random non-sequiturs, broad slapstick and mind-bending worldplay that keeps you constantly chuckling and smiling, with enough boffo big laughs to play well with a theater audience (my early matinee was sparsely attended, but the handful of people who showed up were laughing throughout). Liam Neeson makes the smart decision to play the silly shenanigans as straight-faced as he's done any of his recent spate of arthritic action-hero roles, with a minimum of the broad mugging that came to typify Leslie Nielsen's performance in the original movie's sequels or the lame, post-ZAZ spoofs he was slumming in. It's also surprisingly light on Memberberry callbacks to the previous trilogy of films, which sadly Carrie's over to Lorne Balfe's blah score. Aside from a recurrent noirish jazz theme, the rest is your typical Media Ventures hodgepodge, and a terrific arrangement of Ira Newborn's theme over the end credits only makes you wish that Joel McNeely had been retained, as he would have more adroitly recreated the soundscape of the previous films and sent up film music cliches in a more satisfying manner. other than that, though, this movie was a gas, full of so many jokes some may not even register fully until a second viewing. In a marketplace saturated with weary reboots, this is a "legacy sequel" that pays affectionate tribute to its predecessors while still carving out its own unique sense of humor. It's just bracing to actually LAUGH in a movie theater seat again. Shame it's not gonna break out at the box office, but it will find an audience at home.
I thought this was terrific, myself, 85 minutes (more like 77 sans credits, but the credits are studded with good gags in and of themselves) of almost non-stop guffaws with only a handful of brief dead spots. Most "spoof" movies in recent years have fallen into the trap of either confusing references with actual jokes (like those ghastly "Seltzerberg" movies of the mid-to-late 2000s) or else filling the frame with scatalogical excess, and while this isn't a movie above fart jokes, it spaces them out with a bevy of sharp observational humor, random non-sequiturs, broad slapstick and mind-bending worldplay that keeps you constantly chuckling and smiling, with enough boffo big laughs to play well with a theater audience (my early matinee was sparsely attended, but the handful of people who showed up were laughing throughout). Liam Neeson makes the smart decision to play the silly shenanigans as straight-faced as he's done any of his recent spate of arthritic action-hero roles, with a minimum of the broad mugging that came to typify Leslie Nielsen's performance in the original movie's sequels or the lame, post-ZAZ spoofs he was slumming in. It's also surprisingly light on Memberberry callbacks to the previous trilogy of films, which sadly Carrie's over to Lorne Balfe's blah score. Aside from a recurrent noirish jazz theme, the rest is your typical Media Ventures hodgepodge, and a terrific arrangement of Ira Newborn's theme over the end credits only makes you wish that Joel McNeely had been retained, as he would have more adroitly recreated the soundscape of the previous films and sent up film music cliches in a more satisfying manner. other than that, though, this movie was a gas, full of so many jokes some may not even register fully until a second viewing. In a marketplace saturated with weary reboots, this is a "legacy sequel" that pays affectionate tribute to its predecessors while still carving out its own unique sense of humor. It's just bracing to actually LAUGH in a movie theater seat again. Shame it's not gonna break out at the box office, but it will find an audience at home.