Naked Gun/The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear/Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult [3 Discs]

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 3
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Encoding: NTSC
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV, Color
• Features:
  • cc

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Leslie Nielsen - Lt. Frank Drebin
       George Kennedy - Capt. Ed Hocken
       George Kennedy - Ed Hocken
       Priscilla Presley - Jane Spencer
       Ricardo Montalban - Vincent Ludwig
       Robert Goulet - Quentin Hapsburg
       O.J. Simpson - Nordberg
       Fred Ward - Rocco

• Director:

  Peter Segal, David Zucker

• Producer:

  Robert Weiss, David Zucker

• Screenwriter:

  Jim Abrahams, Robert LoCash, Pat Proft, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker

• Cinematographer:

  Robert M. Stevens

• Composer (Music Score):

  Ira Newborn

• Featured Music:

  Alan Gordon

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Hank Garfield

• Editor:

  Christopher Greenbury, Michael Jablow, James R. Symons

• Production Designer:

  William C. Gerrity, John J. Lloyd, Lawrence G. Paull

• Art Director:

  Bruce Crone, Don Woodruff

• Co-producer:

  William C. Gerrity, Robert LoCash, John D. Schofield

• Associate Producer:

  Michael Ewing, Robert LoCash, Kevin Marcy, John D. Schofield, Jeff Wright

REVIEWS:

• The title of Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult suggests that executive producers Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker knew they were offering diminishing returns with each new outing of Lt. Frank Drebin and company. After all, this time David Zucker isn't even directing -- that task goes to newbie Peter Segal. What they didn't know was that their film would feature two of the 1990s' most notorious tabloid headliners, O.J. Simpson and Anna Nicole Smith, making it quite a fun rental for those interested in seeing these disgraced stars in their more carefree days. As Nordberg, Simpson is as loosey goosey (and repeatedly banged up) as ever, but Smith gives proof as ample as her breasts why she needed her geriatric husband's fortune -- her acting was never going to earn many paychecks. Leslie Nielsen and George Kennedy are still a winningly oblivious comic pair, and Priscilla Presley continues to show her fitness for farce, but the jokes start to feel a little old hat, if not actually unfunny. It's just that knowing what the joke is going to be before the punchline eventually loses its charm. For die-hard fans of spoofs, this one will offer enough, but for those looking for a new and different approach, look elsewhere. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
• The second in a trilogy of comedies based on a failed TV series, The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) exemplified the absurd, slapstick, lowbrow humor of director David Zucker, his brother Jerry Zucker, and their partner Jim Abrahams, characterized by sight gags, non sequiturs, broad acting, celebrity cameos, wordplay, pratfalls, expletives, and bodily functions. The films in the "Naked Gun" trilogy began as a six-episode midseason replacement TV series called Police Squad! (1982), a knowing send-up of such 1970s TV detective dramas as Cannon and Barnaby Jones. As with the Zucker Abrahams Zucker team's box office blockbuster Airplane! (1980), which mocked the clichés of the disaster epic, the newest creation spoofed the conventions of the crime drama, from its characters (a shoeshine boy who was an all-too-knowing informant) to its stylistic elements (the show-closing "freeze frame," which wasn't really frozen). When Police Squad! failed to become a hit, the Zucker Abrahams Zucker team successfully transformed the concept into a feature film, altering the emphasis from wicked satire to broad farce. As in the TV show and first film, star Leslie Nielsen, who had been a staple of tough-guy parts for decades, masterfully underplayed his lead role of Lt. Frank Drebin, a wooden, all-American version of Inspector Clouseau. Delivering every line without inflection and remaining unperturbed by even the most disturbing or humiliating event, Nielsen was given a second career in cartoon-like comedy roles because of his fame as Drebin. Less was required of the supporting parts, filled by such figures as Priscilla Presley, O.J. Simpson, and Robert Goulet, all lampooning their public images. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
• In 1982, the creators of Airplane!, Jim Abrahams and brothers Jerry Zucker and David Zucker, were asked to translate the success of their disaster movie spoof into a weekly television series. The result was the inspired Police Squad!, a dead-on parody of prime-time cop dramas starring a veteran of series TV, the stone-faced Leslie Nielsen. Perhaps their aim was too accurate: viewers didn't respond to the deadpan wit, and the series was cancelled after only six episodes. But the show remained dear to the filmmakers, and six years later they reached a larger audience with the broader, full-length feature The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!. What the film version lacked in sardonic wit, it made up with a rapid-fire onslaught of jokes -- gross-out slapstick, bad puns, and pop culture references happily co-exist, often within the same shot. This brand of humor marked a shift away from the more satirical laughs of Airplane! and Police Squad!, and it would influence a slew of Saturday Night Live-derived features, as well as the no-holds-barred Farrelly brothers comedies. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

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