Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | News | August 4, 2025
I don’t know if The Naked Gun and its solid $17 million opening ($2 million over expectations) is enough to usher comedies back into theaters, but I do know that I haven’t laughed that hard in a movie theater in years. There’s just something about being in a room full of laughter that can’t be beat. I took my son, and the kid giggled for nearly an hour and a quarter.
My only issue with comedies in theaters now is that all the theaters are designed with reclining chairs, which means you can’t pack a crowd like in the old days. It’s like a Ben Folds concert I attended a few weeks ago, where no one stood. We respectfully sat in our seats and tapped our toes. We all stood ahead of the encore, chanting his name, and I thought, Finally! But as soon as he walked back out on stage, the entire theater sat down again. It made me feel very old.
Anyway: The Naked Gun was hilarious. Liam Neeson was a big part of why. He was so naturally good in the role that I didn’t even consider that the 73-year-old actor has barely done any comedy over the course of his career. According to director Akiva Schaffer, though, it was a cameo appearance in the Ricky Gervais/Warwick Davis series Life Is Short that convinced Schaffer not only to cast Neeson but to write the screenplay with him in mind.
“He’s playing Liam Neeson in it, but it’s clearly a caricature,” Schaffer told IndieWire’s The Filmmaker’s Toolkit podcast. “That’s an amalgamation of every action movie he’s made for the last 10 years, and he’s playing it so serious and so humorless and saying crazy sh*t. That’s also why when they said Liam Neeson, I went, ‘Oh,’ because when you see that clip, you’re like, what an amazing untapped resource. The leading-man, old-school gravitas — that doesn’t exist anymore, but also (he) hasn’t used his power for comedy yet, almost ever, except that clip and a cameo in Ted 2.”
Having watched the clip, which is from 2011, I understand.
Go see The Naked Gun. In a movie theater. During a peak time. The movie’s silliness won’t hit the same if you watch it on your laptop in three months with a cat purring on your legs.
