There was a time when the Abrams/Zucker crew ruled comedy with hit after hit. Among their best was the Police Squad series and later on the Naked Gun movies. But nothing good is allowed to rest so now we have the Naked Gun reboot.. right on the heels of the Happy Gilmore 2 sequel. Everything old is new again.
My biggest fear going into this was they promoted it as being a Seth Mcfarlane project. I don't like Seth McFarlane humor in quantity.. luckily he's actually just a producer despite the top billing. Instead it was directed by one of the Lonely Island guys.
The film does a good job of replicating that Airplane! style of humor. Puns, sight gags and the word play jokes. They manage to get the style down pretty well without it feeling like a rip-off. I would still give the nod to the originals as being more witty overall but this humor here isn't bad. It's definitely better than some of the later Abams/Zucker solo projects that came later like Spy Hard. My biggest complaint about the jokes is most of the good ones were given away in the trailers.
Overall the film is better than expected. It's not a nostalgia fest like Gilmore 2 nor is it a gross out lame update like say that horrible Vacation reboot with Ed Helms. It really does stand on it's own.
Most importantly.. it's a PG comedy that isn't aimed at kids. A genre that ruled the cinema for decades then almost entirely disappeared about 20 years ago. Seriously think of the last time a legit general audience comedy came out that wasn't some sort of blend (ie action comedy) or animated. It's a rare breed.. so for that alone I hope this does well.
