Naked Gun 33 1/3 will not change your life. You will not learn any lesson, nor will you take away any great emotional significance.
But you might just laugh, and isn't that what is really important?
This third and final installment of the Naked Gun series, by the man who didn't bring you such riveting classics as Gone with the Wind and Casablanca, David Zucker, is on par with its predecessors. And that's quite an achievement -- Leslie Nielsen and cast rarely fail to hit the mark.
What makes this movie such a hit is the type of comedy Zucker and company produce. In typical Airplane! fashion, every line serves as either the end of one joke or a set up for the next one. In fact, it almost gets to the point when you hope the plot line doesn't interfere with any of the punchlines.
Nielsen returns as the now-retired Lt. Frank Drebin, who lives with his wife, Jane Spenser-Drebin (Priscilla Presley). When friends Ed and Nordberg (George Kennedy and should-be-Academy Award-nominee O.J. Simpson) convince Frank to go undercover into a maximum security prison to stop a recent rash of bombings, the fun really begins.
Nielsen surprisingly excells not only in his plethora of one-liners, but in the physical aspects of his comedy. His facial expressions and precision execution of slapstick comedy put the "dreb" back in Drebin.
New to the tradition is Fred Ward, who plays Rocco, the villain of the picture. Although he doesn't live up to the precedent set by Ricardo Montalban in the original Naked Gun, he does his part to help the movie along.
The most surprising newcomer is the shockingly large Anna Nicole Smith, Playboy's 1993 Playmate of the Year. As villainess Tanya, she is the first actress I've ever seen who borders on the line between "hot" and "masculine." Set against Nielsen, the interaction between the two makes for some extremely funny moments.
Take, for instance, Tanya's seduction of the lieutenant in the cabin scene. A normally average scene such as this is made funny by the contrast of the big blonde bombshell and the goofy old cop. Nielsen and Smith . . . a comedy pair unparalleled since Shirley and Rerun of "What's Happening" fame.
Overall, this is one of those films where everyone leaves with a smile on their faces, then goes to the local McDonald's and recites every funny line they can think of. Pretty soon, you'll be hearing Drebin's, "Like a midget at a urinal, I had to stay on my toes," alongside Monty Python's, "We are the knights who say, 'Nee!'," in common movie discussions -- a sure sign to check this movie out.
