This second chip off the Naked Gun block follows the hallowed tradition of wallowing in stupidity. Still, it’s hard to hate a sequel whose ad copy contains the line “mostly all new jokes”.
The funniest parts of the film are the throwaways, like a newspaper headline that reads DYSLEXIA FOR CURE FOUND. Or when Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), now retired from the LAPD, tries to pull a supermarket shopping trolley out of a string of them that have been jammed together.
Beyond that there are the usual pardoes of hit movies (including The Untouchables and Jurassic Park) and a bizarre plot about a terrorist (Fred Ward) who wants to blow up that most sacred of institutions, the Academy Awards.
Director Peter Segal spends a great deal of energy staging the climactic free-for-all of bullets and pratfalls at the Shrine Auditorium where Drebin mingles disastrously with stars of the calibre of Pia Zadora, Vanna White and Weird Al Yankovic.
To be honest, the finale of The Bodyguard was funnier!
Lt. Frank Drebin
Leslie Nielsen
Jane Spencer
Priscilla Presley
Ed Hocken
George Kennedy
Nordberg
O.J. Simpson
Rocco
Fred Ward
Muriel
Kathleen Freeman
Tanya Peters
Anna Nicole Smith
Louise
Ellen Greene
Ted Olsen
Ed Williams
Papshmir
Raye Birk
Clayton
Matt Roe
Defense Attorney
Wylie Small
Dr Eisendrath
Earl Boen
Jason
Brad Lockerman
Bobbi
Rosalind Allen
Nurse
Charlotte Zucker
Dr Kohlzak
Lois De Banzie
Dr Roberts
Doris Belack
Ann B. Davis
Herself
Vanna White
Herself
Weird Al Yankovic
Himself
Pia Zadora
Herself
Mary Lou Retton
Herself
Director
Peter Segal