THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2: THE SMELL OF FEAR
Reviewed by David N. Butterworth
(c) 1991 David N. Butterworth/The Summer Pennsylvanian
Just accept it, Patrick Swayze. Police Lt. Frank Drebin is back!
From the brother of the director of GHOST comes THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2: THE SMELL OF FEAR, a movie two-and-a-half times funnier than last summer's paranormal blockbuster, an uproariously daffy (if equally para-normal) follow-up to the 1988 comedy, THE NAKED GUN: FROM THE FILES OF POLICE SQUAD!
And the good news is that THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2: THE SMELL OF FEAR" is just as dumb, just as silly ... and just as hilarious as its predecessor.
Based on an short-lived TV series (one that CBS is slated to re-broadcast later this month), THE NAKED GUN: FROM THE FILES OF POLICE SQUAD! sent up the police/crime drama to the point of idiocy. Now, with THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2: THE SMELL OF FEAR, that lunatic tradition is continued, with Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), the soft-boiled Police Lieutenant with the deadpan delivery, embroiled in an irrelevant plot about some political campaign for clean energy.
Watching the inept, monosyllabic Drebin blunder his way through this nonsense is a hoot and a half. It's an inspired and goofball turn by Nielsen.
The original film wound up with Drebin finding himself in a compromising position with the Queen of England. It seems only fitting, therefore, that the sequel would have a go at this nation's President and First Lady. Most people wouldn't consider Barbara Bush a natural stooge, but in THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2: THE SMELL OF FEAR, she takes it on the chin -- literally -- on more than one occasion.
Priscilla Presley once again plays Jane Spenser, the object of Drebin's affections. "She has the kind of body that could melt a cheese sandwich from across the room," he observes, in typical police melodrama voice-over. "With the kind of breasts that say, 'Hey - look at me!'" Presley is the straightest thing in the film, and it's nice to see her finally finding her niche.
Robert Goulet plays Quentin Hapsburg, an oily, David Niven-esque rogue with designs on the curvaceous Jane. Although THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear" is far from being brilliantly conceived, the way in which Hapsburg buys the farm is, and is worth the price of admission alone.
That earlier reference to GHOST, of course, is more than just familial. There can be few people who haven't yet seen the film's central "homage" to director Jerry Zucker's 1990 tearjerker, and I won't spoil it for those who haven't. Suffice it to say the obligatory stock footage of trains going into tunnels and oil wells erupting has never been funnier. And I was humming "Unchained Melody" days after seeing this movie, which is more than I can say for GHOST.
Another cleverly constructed scene is the one in which Drebin visits a lounge called "The Blue Note," a morose and dimly lit hangout frequented by manic depressives, with its wall-to-wall paintings of the Hindenburg, Titanic and other national disasters. When Drebin orders the strongest thing they have, a body builder shows up. So when he settles instead for a Black Russian, the audience groans in anticipation. But the waiter's ahead of us and, facing the camera, shrewdly shakes his head.
Similarly, when one of the bad guys is spotted in Washington, D.C.'s red light district, Drebin questions his motivations. "Sex, Frank?" suggests Captain Ed Hocken (George Kennedy, in a reprise of his role). Drebin appears to contemplate the statement for a while and then declines the "offer" with a "No. Not right now, Ed."
As you can tell, the impetus behind these films -- which began in 1980 with AIRPLANE! -- is to cram as many sight gags and corny one-liners as possible into ninety minutes. In that film, producers Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker's machine gun scattering of belly laughs were constant and hysterical, and the film set the pattern for future comedic outings, such as the under-appreciated TOP SECRET!
Of course, with this many jokes-per-minute, not all of them can work. But those that do are consistently big enough to sustain you throughout the few that don't.
A minor criticism with THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2: THE SMELL OF FEAR is the way in which characters often react to an on-screen witticism by moving their eyes from side to side in bewilderment. A more distracted approach, with no observed response to the joke, might have been funnier. But why carp?
When asked why the sub-title "The Smell of Fear," director David Zucker responds "It just sounded funny." That thinking appears to be what fires THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2" -- go for the quick laugh fast.
From the wild ride (with an equally wild conclusion) of the opening credits to the trumped up finale, it's a film overflowing with cheap, stupid and side-splittingly funny jokes that will make even the most hardened criminal crack a smile.
| Directed by: David Zucker David N. Butterworth - UNIVERSITY OF PA | | Rating: **1/2 Internet: butterworth@a1.mscf.upenn.edu |
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews