The Naked Gun

It gave me about 10 big laughs and 20 small laughs and as many smiles. That`s value for time and money spent.

In the years since he first played Drebin, Nielsen has deepened the role, made it more subtle, more universal, more paramount.

The two Zuckers and Abrahams have, surprisingly, forgotten a principle of parody that they taught everyone else. Namely, that the jokes have to fit, and that they have to refer to the target -- in this instance police movies.

The proud regard in which this farce holds bad taste makes it endearing.

The Naked Gun is hugely funny, but it`s also liberating-precisely because it centers its aim on that cold, closed system and blows it apart. The straight lines are shattered; the empty spaces in the images are packed full until they burst.

Like the ZAZ lads' other films, this is a movie made for a VCR Saturday night. They supply the jokes; you bring the microwave popcorn and modest expectations.

[A] share of good silly gags performed with B-movie solemnity...

The film stumbles like a chicken with its head cut off. [Full review in Spanish]

The dialogue is practically perfect in its silliness, made more impressive considering the rapid-fire and convoluted abundance of one-liners and facetious remarks.

As scripted by the writing team that gave the world Flying High and Top Secret, the deliciously dumb jokes just don't let up...