Plot: What’s it about?
It’s now been six years (when this movie came out) since the original “Naked Gun” movie has been released. With the success of the first two movies, the third can coast through on name recgonition alone. And, in a sense, that’s what this one does. Sporting the same cast as the first two movies, The Naked Gun again takes up right after the previous one left off. Drebin (Nielsen) has since retired from Police Squad and has now been married for six months to the lovely Jane (Priscella Presley). Jane is now a practicing lawyer and Frank is a house-husband who still can’t cook, but boy can he clean! What’s most noticeable about this Naked Gun, though, is the time frame in which it came out. Judging from the Theatrical Trailer included on the disc, it came out on Friday, March 18, 1994…now that’s just a few months prior to one of the most talked about events in recent history. Of course, I’m referring to O.J.’s ill-fated car chase all through Los Angeles. O.J. is indeed in the third movie, once again reprising his role as Nordberg, though his part is not that big.
Drebin, now retired, misses police life (actually he misses not being able to shoot anybody), and has since been given his own memorial alongside the likes of Wyatt Earp and others. Now content to be a homebody who watches soap operas all day long, the Police Squad needs his help one last time. Posing as an undercover man at a sperm donation clinic, Drebin is trying to assist the Police Squad in hopes of catching the lovely Tanya (None other than Anna Nicole Smith, Miss May 1992…I think) and her boyfriend, Rocco (Fred Ward). Rocco has just escaped from prision and for a price, has agreed to blow up the Academy Awards! Posing as a fellow inmate, Drebin is in full undercover mode to try and crack this case and help out Police squad. Of course, this being the last in the series, we see that Frank again dons his disguises (which all look strangely like him) and posing as Phil Donahue at the Oscars, he is bound and determined to find the envelope with the bomb in it.
The Naked Gun 33 1/3 wraps up one of the most hilarious trilogys that I can think of, though the reins are now in Director Peter Segal’s hands. Segal stays with Zucker’s directing style and keep the slapstick to an all-time high and it might as well be Zucker directing. Segal, better known for directing “Tommy Boy” got a good taste of what a hit feels like, as this was fairly successful at the box office. In my opinion, I will always think of this as O.J.’s last movie, rather than the ending of the “Naked Gun” series…but that’s just me.
Video: How does it look?
We’re getting into the mid 90’s now, and the picture has benefited from the improved technology. The 1.85:1 image is almost free of any compression errors, artifacts and any kind of shimmering all together. The colors are bright and though the scenes are purposely kept kind of muted and non-dated (on purpose), they look great. Fleshtones are natural, and aside from all the makeup on Leslie Nielsen’s face, it all looks great.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio also benefits from the newer sound. A still remixed, but very active Dolby Digital 5.1 track sounds great. There are a few explosions and surround effects that make it stand out as compared to the others, and the dialogue sounds natural and very clean as well. While most of the action takes place within the front three channels, certain scenes make theirselves known with a very powerful soundtrack. Comedies are known for being dialogue-driven, but this has the best of both worlds…
Supplements: What are the extras?
Along with the other Naked Gun movies, a full-length feature commentary track with Peter Tilden, David Zucker, Robert Weiss and Director Peter Segal is now included. While I personally feel that there are too many people to provide an accurate commentary (everyone wants to get their .02 in), it’s still nice to hear them chuckle and laugh at the stupid humor that these movis provide. Also included is a theatrical trailer (but not the teaser, which was so funny in theaters).
