Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
1994 saw the release of the third and final Naked Gun film (and the final appearance of Leslie Nielsen playing Lt. Frank Drebin) and despite the fact that David Zucker was the only remaining member of ZAZ to have had a direct hand in the film itself as a co writer (Peter Segal, who went on to have a pretty prolific comedy directing career would be the helmer here), it’s obvious that they wanted to end the series on a fairly high note after the lame duck second entry which featured a ghoulishly unfunny George H.W. Bush impersonator and some unwanted political overtones as well. Right from the opening shot any astute viewer can immediately ascertain the spoof that they’re going for right off the bat, that being The Untouchables’ train station shootout complete with multiple babies, moving targets including Bill Clinton and The Pope along with a bevy of disgruntled postal workers coming out of nowhere. It can arguably be said that this makes for the single best comic setpiece in the whole entire franchise, not to mention (being a dream sequence) that it might be said that it’s all downhill from here since nothing that would come afterwards could possibly top it. But it’s obvious that the style and formula has been tweaked quite a bit to accommodate being a sequel in a comedic franchise, with some other innovations including a bevy of cameos (some of which are uncredited) along with the expected Weird Al Yankovic appearance and another co star of near equal infamy to series regular O.J. Simpson in the form of the gorgeous yet ill fated Anna Nicole Smith, a person whose personal demons were literally and sadly magnified in the glare of the media spotlight all the way up until her tragic death, but appearing here just at the cusp of her career, she comes across as being both adorable and easy on the eyes (despite a joke towards the end at her expense) well before she virtually became portrayed by the media as being America’s Whore simply because she wound up marrying an older man with money (a dilemma shared by her cameoing co star Pia Zadora from her heyday in the 1980s) when nowadays that sort of thing is such an everyday occurrence amongst much less famous women than Smith that one wonders if many of them don’t just go through life with their own personal scorecards. The film also trades in the so called highly refined villain type as played by Ricardo Montalban (who was great in Part 1) and Robert Goulet (not so much in Part 2) in favor of a breath of fresh air provided by Fred Ward as a rough around the edges mad bomber (and direct parody of James Cagney in White Heat complete with having an overbearing mother whom he is obsessed with played by legendary battleaxe Kathleen Freeman) hired by the terrorism network go between Papshmir (Raye Birk returning from Part 1 where he had hired Montalban to kill the Queen) to blow up a “major target” for $5 million. As for Drebin, he’s long since retired from police work, acting as house husband to his now married love interest Jane (Priscilla Presley) who strangely enough has now moved on to become a lawyer trying divorce cases where everyone in the courtroom (including the judge) is either breastfeeding or looking after a child as she prosecutes a deadbeat dad for failing to pay child support. One day Drebin gets a visit from his old friend Ed (George Kennedy also coming back) along with the idiot savant cop known as Nordberg (Simpson). After reminding Frank of just how long it’s been since he shot anybody (the one thing about police work that he apparently misses), they rope him into coming back for one last case, having already connected Smith to a series of bombings and sending Drebin over to snoop for information at the sperm bank where she works which turns out to be another hilarious setpiece where in order to maintain his cover and stall for time Drebin winds up dropping enough “loads” to shower a water buffalo (expertly handled in a PG-13 environment) and when he and Presley have a sudden breakup, he decides to go completely undercover at the prison where Ward is being held at even though Ward has his own plans to break out and pull off the job that he’s been hired to do. And so off we go on an extended parody of not only White Heat, but also The Great Escape and virtually every other prison movie ever made, complete with R. Lee Ermey as one of the guards and even Randall “Tex” Cobb as an immate with romantic aspirations for Drebin (a role that Cobb has actually played before for laughs, most notably Ben Dover in Fletch Lives) and of course the prison break itself with its laugh out loud conclusion that sees Drebin and Ward emerging at a Los Angeles area high school where they find themselves being openly fired upon by the student body. Meanwhile, Presley is given her own storyline complete with a man hating best friend (Ellen Greene, a long way from playing Audrey in Little Shop Of Horrors) who persuades Priscilla not only to run away with her but whose first name happens to be Louise, anticipating an extended parody of Thelma And Louise that never really goes anywhere unfortunately (a couple of bits do fall flat here and there unlike the very consistently funny rhythms of Part 1) but the real focus is on Drebin infiltrating and gaining the trust of Ward the mad bomber including finally once again being in the presence of Smith (who amazingly had originally met Drebin back in the 70s during his investigation of a case even though the real Anna Nicole would have been only 10 years old at the time) who makes her own moves on Drebin in classic femme fatale fashion behind Ward’s back. Of course, the one Naked Gun formula element that must always get fulfilled no matter what is that of the grand comic setpiece finale, brilliantly realized in Part 1 by having Drebin trash a baseball game (long live Enrico Pallazzo) and then nearly flatlining in Part 2 by having Drebin be involved in a press conference with the unfunny Bush (Scherf) impersonator. Here it just so happens to be The Academy Awards (the “major target” for which Ward was being paid to blow up) and thus we not only get treated to the sight of Drebin making a mockery of the whole pretentious affair, we also get a vicious skewering on the part of what remains of The ZAZ creative team on Hollywood itself, featuring more than a fair share of additional celebrity cameos (most of whom were obviously in on the joke and cool with it since most of them would have little if any chance of being allowed to appear on the real Oscars telecast) as Drebin goes in and knocks out presenter Phil Donahue (actually a double in this case) and dons his trademark glasses so as to be unrecognizable as being anyone other than his doppelganger Donahue himself. We witness a Lifetime Achievement Award being given to longtime fictional ZAZ producer Samuel L. Bronkowitz (who expires in his wheelchair before he even makes it up to the podium), Drebin / Donahue making a living hell out of a horrible dance number being led by the aforementioned Zadora (showing herself to still be a good sport after the heaps of abuse which she endured over the years) and then (having found out that Ward had managed to plant the bomb in one of the presenters’ envelopes) taking the stage with the lovely and still welcome Raquel Welch to present an award while knowing that opening the winning envelope will blow the bomb and eventually engaging in an hilarious onstage battle royale with Raquel herself over who gets to open (or not open) that envelope. Enough craziness and out of left field laughs ensues with surprisingly a minimum amount of involvement from either Kennedy’s Ed Hocken or O.J.’s Nordberg. Yes it’s true that some bits tend to fall flatter than expected such as a strange Beavis And Butthead reference which even fans of that show might not pick up on nor appreciate even though the show was in the prime of its run back then. But at least in moving away from the political angles and redirecting their focus on the absurdity of Hollywood itself, the series was able to make a nice comeback and farewell at the same time (with O.J.’s arrest mere months later guaranteeing no more sequels) and reassert that Nielsen’s various other spoof comedy projects that he took part in would never match the inspiration or the hilarity of Drebin nor the franchise that grew out of the mere 6 episode TV show which started it all…
8/10