Cut Short: The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

I was a bit worried watching this because I’d consumed many of the best skits and gags this movie has to offer before seeing the film itself. Thankfully, I’m happy to say the context the film gave these skits let me laugh just as much as I did the first time I saw them.

The Nake Gun is a parody/spoof of cop movies going through the motions of a sad detective narrating a predictable case and with a corny love story, but taking not a single bit of itself seriously. It’s to a point where some of the funniest moments in the film aren’t even those directly parodying this movie type; characters walking around the sets in scenes and asking where other characters, centimetres away from them can be found, give the best laughs.

I think that’s important because it doesn’t rely on the parody aspect to he funny; the film is perfectly able of being funny independent of the stuff it’s making fun of. And that’s just a sign of well written and performed comedy, done by a great cast and set of writers.

Though I would say most of the best moments are in the first half of the film, the rest of it is still worth sticking around for. It’s a great movie, with a great sense of humour and unhinged desire to plug a joke into every part of itself. And because most of which actually land, I would recommend fhe Naked Gun.