Wrongfully Accused
With the success ofThere's Something About Mary, the brothers Farrelly would seem to have inherited the dumb-comedy crown from the various talents who madeAirplane!and its many descendants:Top Secret!,The Naked Gun,Hot Shots!. For the most part, that's true, but asWrongfully Accusedproves, there's a bit of life in the old shtick. Pat Proft, a screenwriter onThe Naked Gunseries andHot Shots!, makes his directorial debut with this farce, which stars--surprise, surprise--Leslie Nielsen in a parody of the feature version ofThe Fugitive. More than that: Proft piles on joking references to a host of other dramas, includingCasablanca,Mission: Impossible, andBraveheart. While the persistence of these inter-movie gags can wear a viewer down a bit, the fact is some of the silly stuff really does hit its target. If the progeny ofAirplane!were to end with this movie, it would be a worthy way to say farewell to a once-good idea. The DVD includes trailers, a game, Dolby, audiovisual production notes, cast interviews, biographies and filmographies, English and French soundtracks, and English, French, and Spanish subtitles. With Kelly LeBrock, Richard Crenna, Sandra Bernhard, and Michael York.--Tom Keogh