The Naked Gun DVD Gift Set
Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad!David Zucker--of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker creative troika behindAirplane!and television'sPolice Squad!--directed  this 1988 feature film based on the latter show. Leslie Nielsen returns  to his old TV role of Lt. Frank Drebin, the deadpan idiot with a  detective's badge. The reinvention of the failed series as a theatrical  feature seems to have inspired everyone involved to make a pretty funny  movie, and the jokes gather a momentum that lasts until the final act.  Ricardo Montalban is a perfect foil as a villain whose aquarium is being  invaded by Drebin during routine questioning, and George Kennedy is  delightful in a self-parodying part as an earnest but obtuse lawman.  There's a hilarious bit when Drebin--wearing a live police wire while  going to the bathroom--can be overheard over the loudspeakers at a  speech given by a flustered mayor (Nancy Marchand). Yes, that's O.J.  Simpson as a detective who ends up on the wrong side of numerous Drebin  blunders.--Tom KeoghNaked Gun: 2 1/2 - The Smell of FearIt's more of Leslie Nielsen's Lt. Frank Drebin, the bumbling cop from the oldPolice Squad!television series. This time, Drebin uncovers a plot--led by  supervillain Robert Goulet!--to sabotage America's energy policy. The  jokes don't stick as well as those of the first film (Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!),  but there are some very funny slapstick moments, including several  involving former First Lady Barbara Bush (played by an actress, of  course).--Tom KeoghNaked Gun: 3 1/3 - The Final InsultThe usual way of the world is that sequels amount to thinner and thinner carbon copies of the original. But not in the case ofNaked Gunmovies, which only seemed to get funnier with each new entry. This  third episode in the series finds Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie  Nielsen) retired from his police squad and married to the woman of his  dreams (Priscilla Presley). But he is pressed back into action to  infiltrate a group of terrorists who plan to blow up the Oscars. The  filmmakers make hay with spoofs of prison films and, particularly, of  the Oscars themselves, in an award-show send-up that includes such  real-life stars as Raquel Welch and Pia Zadora--and Drebin being  mistaken for Phil Donahue. The takeoff on the dreadful production  numbers that always drag out the Academy Awards will have you howling.--Marshall Fine