Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult

Directed by Peter Segal, Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult follows Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin as he comes out of retirement to stop a ruthless gang of criminals from detonating a bomb during the Academy Awards. Filmmaker Segal, armed with a script by Pat Proft, David Zucker, and Robert LoCash, does a terrific job of immediately luring the viewer into the somewhat erratic proceedings, as Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult kicks off with a pre-credits sequence that parodies The Untouchables to inspired and downright hilarious effect – with the movie, beyond that point, seguing into a joke-and-gag-heavy midsection that benefits from Nielsen’s stellar, commanding turn as the bumbling central character. (It doesn’t hurt, either, that Segal elicits top-notch work from agreeable periphery players like George Kennedy, Priscilla Presley, and Fred Ward.) And while the picture never quite outstays its welcome thanks to an appropriately brisk running time, Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult admittedly does suffer from a final, Oscars-set interlude that’s perhaps not quite as compelling as Segal has intended (ie it wears out its welcome, essentially) – which ultimately cements the movie’s place as an entertaining yet hit-and-miss installment within a mostly above-average comedy series.

**1/2 out of ****