Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell Of Fear
Leslie Nielsen certainly had one of the most magnificent Second Career Rebirths of any movie star ever, parlaying himself from that of a stoic leading man into one of the top comedy stars of the 80s and 90s, doing so at an advanced age that somehow made much of his schtick even funnier (the fact that he was a known physical fitness nut in real life certainly didn’t hurt matters any). Lost in the shuffle amongst several iconic actors playing it for laughs in ZAZ’s legendary Airplane!, Nielsen made an ironic decision that no doubt cemented his comedic status for years to come, declining to come on board for the less revered Airplane 2: The Sequel while almost everybody else from the original’s main cast eagerly signed on. The problem was that the second Airplane film was made without ZAZ’s approval or consent, infuriating them so much that they actually called a press conference where they both denounced and disowned this film while also openly stating that they would never again work with any of the original cast members who had taken part in the unauthorized sequel (an edict that practically killed the career of Robert Hays with only Lloyd Bridges eventually being forgiven for his transgression by ZAZ member Jim Abrahams who would bring him back to star in the Hot Shots! films). That left Nielsen (along with Robert Stack) as the only major original cast members in good standing with ZAZ and it was from there that their ongoing working relationship with Nielsen would result in his most famous role ever: Lt. Frank Drebin, the bumbling idiot of a cop first introduced on the (very) short lived Police Squad! TV series and then of course on into the legendary Naked Gun film franchise, featuring Nielsen literally stealing every scene with his Drebin persona, a hardass prick of a cop who was also a completely clueless and stupid asshole, capable of causing more mayhem and carnage at a crime scene than the criminals themselves all while maintaining a hard boiled monologue of his inner thoughts (similar to the Noir genre) that only revealed him to be dumber than we originally thought him to be even though at the end of the day he would always succeed at getting his man. The first Naked Gun literally came out of nowhere with a top line supporting cast and Nielsen more than up to the challenge of carrying a major film even when most of his peers from his younger days had long since retired or passed on and the closing baseball game sequence was a thing of chaotic beauty with one legendary moment after another. Needless to say, it was a hit and then it was on to Part 2 (or 2 ½) where the cracks in the armor were already showing (although everything would be improved upon with the third film) right from the opening scene which is nowhere near as funny as Part 1’s having Drebin beating up the bad guy world leaders in Beirut. For some unknown reason, Drebin and his fellow cops from Part 1 (George Kennedy and O.J. Simpson) have been transplanted from their home base in Los Angeles to Washington D.C. and no prizes are awarded for guessing that given the year of release (1991), we get to have the current (and now dated) political climate of the era reflected here including a most unfunny and bizarre looking impersonator playing 41st President George H.W. Bush (Scherf). This performance is so tepidly bad that it almost seems to actually be impersonating Dana Carvey’s epic (and funnier) impersonation of Bush 41 on Saturday Night Live rather than Bush 41 himself, but rather than get Carvey for the role, we instead get John Rourke, supposedly a known celebrity impersonator who appeared to be more than several rungs down the ladder from Rich Little in that department which, combined with his robotic body movements and the unfunny semi running gag of having Drebin always knocking First Lady Barbara Bush on her ass, makes us wary of what’s to come, an apparent endorsement from ZAZ (or at least David Zucker from their ranks who directed here and appeared to be the primary creative mind for this one) of green and solar energy along with rejection of fossil fuels, with the heads of those industries (oil, coal and nuclear) being portrayed as bland suit and tie villains who are part of an apparent conspiracy to force The Bush Administration to continue using their services instead of heeding the advice of a top environmental scientist (Richard Griffiths) whom they have replaced with a double (also Griffiths) who would now convince Bush to follow along with their agenda. How any of this is actually funny (absurdity applies also to the plots of comedies) or appropriate for a Naked Gun film is anybody’s guess especially whenever the horribly creaky Bush clone is brought back onscreen. Instead, the film is forced to rely on Drebin and the other series regulars to carry the load through individually funny character moments even as Simpson as the accident prone Nordberg ended the interest that a lot of people had in the franchise as a result of his murder trial where most people still believe that he was guilty despite his acquittal but Kennedy remains a determined old ham with his personal highlight having him be so disgusted with a particular criminal’s actions that he throws down his badge and gun and challenges the bad guy to a fight only to wind up getting his ass handed to him pretty quickly. Of course Priscilla Presley (as adorable as ever regardless of whatever her age happens to be) also comes back as Drebin’s love interest, having broken up with Drebin between movies but as usual remaining the sweet, virtuous little lamb once again caught up unknowingly with the bad people, this time her new boyfriend played by singer (and attempted actor) Robert Goulet, who happens to be heading up the conspiracy to force President Bush’s hand in keeping America’s energy needs strictly at the mercy of the fossil fuel industry. Great singer though he might be, Goulet’s stiff, uninspired turn here makes one pine for the suave straight man technique employed by Ricardo Montalban in Part 1 even with the fact that he is now dating Presley (ironic because Elvis himself in real life once reportedly shot a TV set because Goulet had come on it singing) being the motivation that is actually fueling Drebin’s desire to bring him down (although Goulet’s comedic demise here is one for the ages that actually does top Montalban’s memorable exit in Part 1) as Presley chastises Drebin for only pursuing him out of jealousy because he’s her new boyfriend. As much as the funny moments do pile up here and there, the attempts at any form of political satire exposes it as being ZAZ’s Achilles heel in terms of being funny in that department even portraying Bush’s Chief Of Staff John Sununu (Peter Van Norden doing a much better and funnier impression than the guy playing Bush) as being “in on it” with the bad guys and finally hitting their one home run in the scene where Kennedy announces to a roomful of D.C. elites that they’ve got the evidence to implicate the man that they’re looking for and half of the well dressed men in the room jump up with a gun and take a hostage even though the only one they actually wanted was Goulet. Griffiths however (of the Harry Potter series) is pretty much wasted as both the eminent scientist and his double (who looks completely different than the man he’s impersonating without his makeup) with the idea that employing such a double to take on someone’s identity so that they can control the balance of power actually being a pretty viable real life conspiracy theory but any attempt to allow Griffiths as an actor to really sink his teeth into such a concept for a dual role is pretty much neutered by both a lack of screen time and a tendency to only show both characters under the scientist guise only. At least we get the underrated Anthony James as a henchman specializing in dirty work who scores some big points particularly when he goes into Presley’s apartment to do a hit on her only to be entranced to hear her singing The Way We Were in the shower and actually joining in instead (and he sings good too!). But the shuttered down D.C. setting, thinly veiled pro environmental plot, lame Bush parody and the lack of a finale as outrageous as Part 1’s baseball game all work against this entry and reduces it to being merely average in a comedy style and subgenre that Nielsen practically had the market cornered on at that point in his career…
7/10