Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr. in ‘The Naked Gun’ from Paramount Pictures.
‘The Naked Gun’ receives 8.5 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters on August 1st is ‘The Naked Gun’, a sequel to –– and soft reboot of –– the spoof police movies that starred Leslie Nielsen.
With Liam Neeson as his character’s son, another cop whom chaos follows wherever he goes, the new movie is directed by ‘Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers’Akiva Schaffer and also stars Paul Walter Hauser (‘I, Tonya’), Pamela Anderson (‘The Last Showgirl’), Danny Huston (‘The Constant Gardener’) and CCH Pounder (‘Avatar’).
Related Article: Liam Neeson is in Talks To Star in New ‘Naked Gun’ Movie
Initial Thoughts
(L to R) Paul Walter Hauser plays Ed Hocken Jr. and Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr. in ‘The Naked Gun’ from Paramount Pictures.
Comedy has been having a tough old time of it on the big screen of late. While veterans such as Adam Sandler has largely moved his output to Netflix or other streamers the genre has generally been seen as too unreliable (and worse, unprofitable) for theatrical release.
Thank goodness, then, for Liam Neeson and his particular set of skills, which in this case include making an absolute fool of himself while playing the role completely straight. And for the creative team behind the new ‘Naked Gun’ movie, who chose to channel, honor yet also meta comment on the film series (and ‘Police Squad’ TV show from where they were spawned) while making something that works.
Script and Direction
(L to R) Director Akiva Schaffer, Liam Neeson and Paul Walter Hauser on the set of ‘The Naked Gun’ from Paramount Pictures.
Written by Schaffer alongside Dan Gregor (‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’) and Doug Mand (‘How I Met Your Mother’) with acknowledgement to ‘Police Squad’ and original ‘Naked Gun’ creators David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, the new movies’ screenplay largely follows the template established.
It’s a joke-a-minute formula as Neeson’s character acts like he’s in a normal cop thriller all the while getting so many things wrong.
Meanwhile, there are background jokes piled upon dialogue nonsense and so many running gags (such as Frank and his cop buddies constantly being handed coffee, even while in moving cars) that if you don’t laugh at one thing, another is along to tickle your funny bone before too long.
Being smart while playing dumb is a tough road to ride, and if the new ‘Naked Gun’ sometimes falls afoul of its own ambition, at least the ambition is there.
(L to R) Paul Walter Hauser, Director Akiva Schaffer and Liam Neeson on the set of ‘The Naked Gun’ from Paramount Pictures.
It doesn’t hurt that Schaffer is fully versed in directing comedy –– from his days as part of the Lonely Island trio on ‘Saturday Night Live’ to the underappreciated likes of ‘Hot Rod’ and ‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’, he knows when to dial things up and when to stand back and let a talented cast do their thing.
Also marshalling so much madness going on in each frame when required is not an easy task, and Schaffer and his fellow filmmakers manage it.
There are certainly beats that will be familiar to fans of executive producer Seth MacFarlane’s copious output, but this feels much more like classic ‘Naked Gun’ than anything such as ‘Family Guy’.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Danny Huston plays Richard Cane and Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr. in ‘The Naked Gun’ from Paramount Pictures.
Like Leslie Nielsen before him, Liam Neeson has primarily been a dramatic actor (and, in the last couple of decades, an action star). But he’s also proved his comedy chops, working with MacFarlane and elsewhere.
His deadpan, wink-free delivery is a solid substitute for the way Nielsen played Frank Drebin and framing him as the officer’s son makes more sense than having Neeson play a rebooted Drebin himself.
Neeson throws himself into the role (and out a window at one point), and plays well off of everyone around him.
Likewise Pamela Anderson, who understands the assignment and makes for a great femme fatale with a vulnerable side, who is willing to throw herself into as ridiculous a moment as the filmmakers can dream up (witness her jazz-scatting as part of a distraction during one of Drebin’s investigation).
(L to R) Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr. and Pamela Anderson plays Beth Davenport in ‘The Naked Gun’ from Paramount Pictures.
Likewise Danny Huston gives great smarm as the charismatic, conniving Richard Cane, an Elon Musk type with a dastardly plan. Even more than either of the leads, Huston is the straight man to the chaos around him, but late in the movie when he needs to show another side, he’s absolutely up for the challenge.
Paul Walter Hauser, meanwhile, was a great choice for Ed Hocken Jr. (son of George Kennedy’s character from the original movies), as he’s finely-tuned his ability to play it straight and yet also befuddled.
Around them, the likes of CCH Pounder (playing Drebin’s endlessly frustrated boss) and Kevin Durand (as Cane’s security chief who gets his own moment to shine) fill their roles perfectly.
Final Thoughts
(L to R) Paul Walter Hauser plays Ed Hocken Jr. and Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr. in ‘The Naked Gun’ from Paramount Pictures.
If the 2025 ‘The Naked Gun’ was a risk, it was one certainly worth taking. It may not always hit the heights of the ZAZ/Nielsen era, but it certainly comes close and it’s the funniest movie to be released in a long while.
Cleverly riffing on films such as ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Mission: Impossible’, it’s endlessly funny and wipes away the traumatic memories of the awful spoof era whose nadir was found in ‘Epic Movie’ and ‘Date Movie’.
Pundits gave the new movie a 50/50 chance of succeeding, but there was only a 10% chance of that. And yet, here comes ‘The Naked Gun’ to beat the odds.
“The law’s reach never stretched this far.”
Showtimes & Tickets
Only one man has the particular set of skills…to lead Police Squad and save the world!
Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) follows in his father’s footsteps in… Read the Plot
What’s the story of ‘The Naked Gun’?
Only one man has the particular set of skills… to lead Police Squad and save the world!
Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) follows in his father’s footsteps in this new crime caper.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Naked Gun’?
Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr.
Pamela Anderson as Beth Davenport
Paul Walter Hauser as Ed Hocken Jr.
Danny Huston as Richard Cane
CCH Pounder as Chief Davis
Kevin Durand as Sig Gustafson
Liza Koshy as Detective Barnes
(L to R) Eddie Yu plays Detective Park, Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr. and Paul Walter Hauser plays Ed Hocken Jr. in ‘The Naked Gun’ from Paramount Pictures.
Other ‘Naked Gun’ Movies:
Buy Tickets: ‘The Naked Gun’ Movie ShowtimesBuy ‘Naked Gun’ Movies On Amazon
Images speak louder than words, they say. A trailer for With Hasan in Gaza from Palestinian filmmaker Kamal Aljafari (A Fidai Film, Recollection, An Unusual Summer), which world premieres in the competition lineup of the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival on Aug. 7, abides by that saying.
Below, THR can exclusively reveal the first trailer for the film ahead of the Swiss festival, which runs Aug. 6-16.
“Three MiniDV tapes of life in Gaza from 2001 were recently rediscovered,” reads a synopsis of the movie on the Locarno festival website. “What started as a search for a former prison mate from 1989 led to an unexpected road trip from the north to the south of Gaza with Hasan, a local guide whose fate remains unknown.”
The summary also promises “a cinematic reflection on memory, loss, and the passage of time, capturing a Gaza of the past and lives that may never be found again.”
Aljafari, in a director’s note, describes the film as “an homage to Gaza and its people, to all that was erased and that came back to me in this urgent moment of Palestinian existence, or non-existence.” And he highlights: “It is a film about the catastrophe, and the poetry that resists.”
The movie was produced by the filmmaker through his Kamal Aljafari Productions, with the support of the Doha Film Institute, Cnap – Image/mouvement, the Gwaertler Stiftung, the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, the Media City Film Festival’s Chrysalis Fellowship, and Atelier 105 – Light Cone.
With Hasan in Gaza
Courtesy of Kamal Aljafari Productions
The trailer for With Hasan in Gaza now provides a first glimpse of some of the images captured on this trip through Gaza, including kids approaching the camera and a drive along the coastline.
“I went to Gaza 24 years ago searching for a friend, without an address,” the filmmaker says. “This is my first film, which I have never made.”
Check out the trailer for With Hasan in Gaza below.
Another San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone, but not without the Her Universe Fashion Show embracing glitz, glam, and geek couture for the eleventh year. Her Universe founder Ashley Eckstein and co-host Michael James Scott embraced all things Universal and Wicked for the event this time. Eckstein’s was of course a familiar name in the SDCC sphere even before the fashion show thanks to her role as the voice of Star Wars’ Ahsoka Tano, but it turns out that even being part of as formidable franchise as Star Wars didn’t mean overcoming all of her fears about performing.
She and her co-host spoke with CinemaBlend about going full Wicked for SDCC this year, including why she pushed herself to play the Glinda to her Broadway best friend’s Elphaba. I was fortunate enough to attend the Her Universe Fashion Show for the first time this year after Eckstein had opened up about leaning into Wicked and defying fashion. The Her Universe founder teased ahead of time that there “will be singing” with Michael James Scott on stage, but she joined him to kick off the fashion show with a medley of Wicked songs, including “Defying Gravity.”
Nessarose actress Marissa Bode in attendance as a fashion show judge. She explained why she ended up singing:
overcame nerves to host the Her Universe Fashion Show in the first place as well as tackle projects like her Star Wars Mindful Matters shorts, but singing Wicked was unlike anything she’d faced as a performer in public before. She went on:
And I was speechless then, like I am now! All eyes turned on me, and they’re like, ‘So you’re gonna sing, right, Ashley?’ And I was like, ‘Uh, okay?’ as I’m texting Jeremy behind the scenes. Like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me! No, no, no, I can’t do this.’ But the whole theme is, as I talked about during the show, not only defying fashion but defying your own expectations and your own fears and your own limits. And so I’m glad I did it. I’m glad they forced me to do it. [laughs]
Michael James Scott came to the Her Universe Fashion Show not only as Ashley Eckstein’s longtime friend, but with a long list of Broadway credits including Aladdin, TheBook of Mormon, and – one of my personal favorite musicals – Something Rotten.
(Image credit: Mark Edwards Photography)
He explained that he “grew up knowing and actually hearing Ashley sing” since they went to high school together, but Wicked does have “really, truly, some of the hardest music in the world.” Eckstein elaborated on his point of being “excited about being alive and singing and being an artist,” saying:
As kids, you naturally, I think, start out fearless. You’re more willing to try things and so in my mind, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m in front of 2500 people,’ and Michael has gone on to become one of Broadway’s brightest stars. But what I tried to just remind myself of, and I feel like I did – going up on that stage, it was just us in high school. I just almost took myself back and said, ‘This is no different than us in high school singing.’ And so I did allow myself to have fun in that moment.
From my place in the audience of the fashion show, I never would have guessed that she hadn’t sung publicly in decades, and Michael James Scott confirmed “that is the reaction from literally, basically everyone,” and reiterated to his friend that she “can sing” and is a singer now. Ashley Eckstein went on to share why she decided to move past her nerves and perform with him:
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Well, it was important for me to say something in that moment, because that was a really big deal for me personally. I’ve learned through doing my Mental Health Monday posts, and now we’re doing Hype Friend [podcast], that I think people look at us on stage and think like, ‘Oh, they don’t get nervous. They have it all together.’ No, we don’t. We have the same fears, we have the same nerves, we have the same feelings and emotions that everyone else does on any given day, just like anyone. Some days you feel like you sparkle and you can take on the world, and some days you don’t. And so I just tried to be real and I thought in that moment, I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna let this entire audience in on the secret of this real fear that I just overcame,’ and hopefully, by sharing the story, I could help someone else out.
Ashley Eckstein and Michael James Scott were quite literally sparkling in pink and green outfits worthy of Wicked when we spoke at San Diego Comic-Con. This was Her Universe’s biggest year yet with the fashion show, and the timing couldn’t have been better for the Wicked theme. After the first movie won over audiences last year, Wicked: For Good arrives in theaters on November 21 in the 2025 movie schedule. As for Her Universe, it remains to be seen what Eckstein will have in store for 2026.
Just days after NBC confirmed Law & Order: Organized Crime’s return to Thursdays, the double dose of Jimmy Fallon this fall, and when new seasons of all three One Chicago shows will premiere in the 2025 TV schedule, some behind-the-scenes photos from Chicago Med preview the cast getting back to work. While it’s definitely good to get a peek at the action while the weeks count down until Season 11, the particular stars showcased in these photos leave me really hoping that they indicate characters who will share big storylines.
The photos were snapped by Jessy Schram, a.k.a. the actress behind Hannah Asher as the ED’s OB/GYN. Posted by the One Chicago Instagram account, the most notable thing about them somehow isn’t seeing these cast members wearing clothes other than scrubs. Take a look:
Archer (Steven Weber), and that the second photo suggests a bond forming between Dr. Charles (Oliver Platt) and Lenox (Sarah Ramos).
tear-jerking Season 10 finale ended. Whether the cliffhanger was Hannah going to Archer for a shoulder to lean on about Ripley or the baby bombshell was bigger than anybody could have guessed, these three characters overlap. I’m on board for more, and it certainly looks like Jessy Schram was enjoying hanging out with her costars when she snapped the photo.
I’m actually more intrigued by the second picture with Sarah Ramos and Oliver Platt seated next to each other. Ramos’ character, Dr. Lenox, learned in the Season 10 finale that she tested positive for the genetic prion disease that would eventually kill her. While a deleted scene initially made me want to see Lenox bonding with Hannah in Season 11, Dr. Charles as a sympathetic ear could be what Lenox needs in her difficult time… assuming she’d be willing to open up, anyway. (The finale is available streaming with a Peacock subscription now.)
I could see it working, especially if he officially becomes her psychiatrist and doctor/patient confidentiality applies. Whether or not it’s 100% ethical for the two coworkers to interact as doctor and patient is up for debate, but Dr. Charles was bending the rules in some big ways in Season 10, and realism is never guaranteed in One Chicago. Lenox needs somebody she can lean on, and she didn’t seem inclined to confide in Archer at the end of Season 10. Maybe Dr. Charles is the right person.
Or maybe the seating arrangements in the photos were entirely random, and I’m getting my hopes up for some Lenox/Dr. Charles scenes for nothing! Whatever the case, there is an end date in sight for summer hiatus. Chicago Med will return for Season 11 on Wednesday, October 1 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, ahead of Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET and Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET. In the meantime, you can also revisit all three seasons streaming on Peacock.
Known as the Property Brothers, Jonathan and Drew Scott have shared a lot of milestones in their lives given they are twins and have been the co-hosts of their reality series for 14 seasons. But when it comes to getting married in the public eye, they’re pretty easy to tell apart given Jonathan Scott’s recent comments on his upcoming marriage plans to Zooey Deschanel (which have been at a standstill for years).
Jonathan Scott and Zooey Deschanel have been dating since 2019, and announced plans to tie the knot back in 2023. As we continue to wait for the sweet celebrity couple to hear wedding bells, Scott was asked if he’d be interested in televising his wedding like Drew Scott did back in 2018. Here’s how he responded:
