The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear **** (1991, Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, O J Simpson, Robert Goulet, Richard Griffiths) – Classic Movie Review 8206

Director David Zucker’s brilliantly zany 1991 The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear is more of the same comic misadventures with the treasurable Leslie Nielsen back as the seriously inept LA cop Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Nielsen), this time battling bad tycoon Quentin Hapsburg (Robert Goulet, marrying Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley) and re-encountering Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) and Nordberg (O J Simpson).

This sure-fire sequel from, as the ads put it, the brother of the director of Ghost (1990) [that would be Jerry Zucker], happily reprises many of the gags and characters of the original. The silly plot is just a series of funny scenes and funny hit-or-miss scattergun gags, beginning with Nielsen’s Frank Drebin eating lobster with the American President George Bush (John Roarke) and being attacked by the First Lady Barbara Bush (Margery Jane Ross) with a butcher’s knife. However, there is an actual plot about a conspiracy to kidnap Dr Meinheimer (Richard Griffiths), a top scientist advocating solar energy, and replace him with a decoy.

The Naked Gun 2 ½ features cameos by Mel Tormé, Zsa Zsa Gabor and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic (who was also in the first one) [‘You pigs… say your prayers’] and David Zucker as Davy Crockett. Also in the cast are Richard Griffiths, Jacqueline Brookes, Lloyd Bochner, Tim O’Connor, Peter Mark Richman, Fred Ward, Anthony James, and Ed Williams.

It is written with a lot of skill and comedic imagination by David Zucker and Pat Proft, based on the television series Police Squad by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. Thanks for the laughs, guys, and thanks to Leslie Nielsen for the timeless buffoonery.

Sequel: Naked Gun 33 1/3.

R I P Zsa Zsa Gabor (1917 – 2016).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8206

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