For most of its running time, the intermittently amusing comedy “The Naked Gun” (Paramount), a sendup of the hardboiled cop genre, qualifies as a fun spoof that’s appropriate for most grown-ups. Yet its one sequence of utterly tasteless sexual sight gags will leave discerning viewers anything but entertained.
Director and co-writer (with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand) Akiva Schaffer’s addition to the eponymous franchise features Liam Neeson as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. He’s the namesake son of the detective (Leslie Nielsen) whose misadventures were chronicled in the earlier three films, the first of which arrived in theaters back in 1988.
After the preliminaries of his investigation into a fatal car crash, Frank vainly tries to convince the victim’s sister, Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), that her sibling’s death was a suicide. As the inquiry continues, however, he discovers that the deceased’s boss, high-tech mogul Richard Cane (Danny Huston), may be implicated in the incident.
As Frank, a widower, finds new love with Beth, bathroom and bedroom humor put in predictable appearances. Some of these are merely silly, as when a snowman-come-to-life joins them in the canoodling that serves as the opening stages of an implied threeway encounter.
Another series of scenes, though, is thoroughly objectionable. While these involve the visual misinterpretation on the part of a distant observer using nightvision binoculars of what turn out to be perfectly innocent interactions, the false impression conveyed depicts sickeningly perverse activity that cannot be considered an appropriate wellspring for laughs.
The film contains comic mayhem, much sexual humor, some of it involving aberrant behavior, a premarital relationship. brief rear and blurred frontal male nudity played for laughs, scatological jokes, a few mild oaths and a couple of instances each of crude and crass language. The OSV News classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
