Review of The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991) by James W — 19 Jun 2014

Accident-prone detective Frank Drebin returns in The Smell Of Fear, the sequel to hit The Naked Gun: From The Files Of Police Squad. It's hard for sequels to live up to or surpass their predecessors, 2 1/2 doesn't surpass the first but it gets incredibly close and that's highly admirable. Frank Drebin is on a new case involving the attempted murder of a scientist, who then becomes part of a kidnapping plot.

I prefer the original's story involving the Queen coming to visit, it was simply ripe for laughs and it delivered, this second story is less developed but still unloads laugh after laugh, most of which left me in pain from chuckling. Even simple gags like Priscilla Presley crying and wringing her tissue into a bucket filled with tears are laugh out loud, best of all is the crime scene after the bombing, look at the ridiculously over the top placings of the chalk outlines, and Leslie Nielsen's serious tone and facial expressions amongst the madness, this is comedy gold. George Kennedy is outstanding as Detective Captain Ed Hocken, who works alongside Drebin, Kennedy manages to reel out big laughs and never gets left in the shadows behind Nielsen's work. Priscilla Presley is one of the Queen's of slapstick alongside Anna Faris, her falls, slips and trips are usually whilst she's being seductive or explaining some important evidence.

Not a single joke here is out of place, within the first minute I was howling, and I have always said a comedy that can make you laugh almost immediately is a keeper. It'll be interesting to see what Paramount will do with this reboot of this franchise starring Ed Helms, cause he'll sure have his work cut out.