Wrongfully Accused (1998)

Leslie Nielsen is often thought of as one of the comedy greats. That's mainly thanks to his work in Airplane! and anything involving the tales of Police Squad (the superb, short-lived, series that led to the superb The Naked Gun films). But that success meant that he was also involved in more than his fair share of inferior work. Not that the likes of Spy Hard and Dracula: Dead And Loving It don't have their fans (with the former at least having a glorious opening title sequence accompanied by 'Weird' Al Yankovic delivering a great Bond song parody). But they're not on a par with the best films that made use of Nielsen's talents. I'm sure that one day I'll be brave enough to check out the likes of Mr. Magoo and 2001: A Space Travesty, but I think that day is a while off yet.

Wrongfully Accused is mainly a spoof of The Fugitive, but it also has time to gently mock the Mission: Impossible movies, The Usual Suspects, and Clear And Present Danger, among others. Not all of the gags land, of course, but it has a better hit rate than a lot of these movies that have been churned out over the past few decades.

Nielsen is Ryan Harrison, a man framed for murder. He knows that he is innocent, and he knows that the murderer was a one-armed, one-legged, one-eyed man (played by Aaron Pearl). Setting out to prove his innocence, Harrison is pursued by the doggedly determined Fergus Falls (Richard Crenna). He also finds himself potentially betrayed by two different women, Cass Lake (Melinda McGraw) and Lauren Goodhue (Kelly LeBrock).

It's always hard to review something like this, because it's a very simple approach to comedy, in many ways, and writer-director Pat Proft follows the usual approach of throwing enough gags around to ensure that at least some of them land. This is the only film directed by Proft, although he has written a lot of great films over the years (including, but not limited to, Police Academy, Real Genius, High School High, Hot Shots! and the best in the Scary Movie series). Proft knows his stuff, and this holds up as something that is a lot of fun for fans of all those other movies just mentioned. It may not be very clever, and a lot of the comedic targets meant that it felt a bit behind the times when it was released, but it WILL make you laugh. And that's a big plus for any comedy film.

Nielsen is fine in the lead role, doing his usual deadpan best most of the time, although he was already having a tendency to overdo the mugging and gurning at times, and the supporting cast work well with the material. LeBrock smoulders, but also happily overacts in response to what she claims is her powerful attraction to Harrison, and McGraw enjoys being the woman who may or may not get Harrison into a lot more trouble. Pearl is used as a walking set of props, basically (with the false leg, arm, and eye all used in different ways), and there are amusing little turns from Michael York, Sandra Bernhard, and a few others. Crenna is a highlight, helped by the fact that his character is never really made to act comedically while he wanders through some ridiculous situations and delivers some of the best dialogue in the film.

It will never creep up to near the top of your prioritised viewing list, but Wrongfully Accused is an easy slice of entertainment, and I highly recommend it to fans of silliness, spoofery, and Nielsen.

7/10

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Real Genius (1985)

Val Kilmer plays Chris Knight, a genius student who is working on a project that he doesn't realise wants to make a laser usable in a sophisticated and dangerous weapon. Chris is tasked with taking young Mitch Taylor (Gabe Jarret) under his wing. He wants to help academically, but also wants to remind everyone to not take everything so seriously. Chris has seen how stress and obsession can affect people, and he wants to help people maintain a good balance. That doesn't always work for Professor Jerry Hathaway (William Atherton) though. It also doesn't work for the prime douchebag, Kent (Robert Prescott).

Directed by Martha Coolidge, who has a filmography full of interesting movies that I have always been meaning to check out, Real Genius is an enjoyable '80s teen comedy that has the expected mix of fun characters, archetypes, and dialogue without the usual obsession over girls and nudity. You get some early moments with Val Kilmer wearing deely-boppers to highlight just how much he doesn't want to take life seriously, you get some pranks, and you get a final act that allows plot strands to be tied up, set-ups to be paid off, and the slightly serious stuff to be dealt with in a way that intertwines the humour with some serious stakes for those involved. 

Writers Neal Israel, Pat Proft, and Peter Torokvei know what is expected, and they provide some standard moments and gags wrapped in the clothing of these onscreen geniuses. Whether it's the battle of wits between the new kid and the bully, the potential blossoming romance between a couple of main characters, or the strange loner who sees things that nobody else does . . . Real Genius entertains on a trope-filled, teen comedy level, yet adds a layer of smarts that allows it to stand out from the crowd.

Kilmer is a force to be reckoned with, superbly charming and charismatic. Although Jarret is playing the main character, and the way for viewers to meet this cast, it's Kilmer who is the lead. Jarret does well though, he's likeable enough and happy to let others around him shine. Atherton gives another one of his great turns, smiling at his students until things look to be no longer going his way, and Jon Gries is very amusing as the strange loner named Lazlo. Kent may be the character you're supposed to boo and hiss at, but Robert Prescott does well in that role. And then you have Michelle Meyrink, playing Jordan, a young woman with plenty of brains who lacks confidence in herself, and also lacks confidence in her social skills.

It's quirky and clever, but not too quirky and clever for its own good. Having seen this listed by many people over the years as a favourite comedy from this decade, I'm glad I finally checked it off the list. And even more glad that it was as good as many told me it was.

9/10

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April Fools: Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)

At the time of writing, this is the last movie in The Naked Gun franchise. Ed Helms is being lined up to take over the main role, apparently, but it's hard to think of anyone being able to make the role their own after such fine work from the late, great Leslie Nielsen.

In this absurd adventre, Frank Drebin (Nielsen) has retired from the police force. He's happily married to Jane (Priscilla Presley) but misses being able to legally shoot people in the street. The fact that Jane wants to start a family also causes him some stress, something that he escapes when Ed (George Kennedy) and Nordberg (O. J. Simpson) call on him for help. They want Frank to go undercover, to get close to a criminal named Rocco (Fred Ward), and to find out about whatever bad, explosive plans he has in store.

All of the main players are as good as they have been in the previous movies, and Fred Ward is a lot of fun as Rocco. Kathleen Freeman is also very good as Rocco's mother, Muriel, but the good work by everyone else is almost undone by Anna Nicole Smith, playing Rocco's gal, Tanya. She's not quite as bad as some people would have you believe, but . . . . . . . . . . she's . . . . . . not good, and is easily the worst performer onscreen.

With Peter Segal taking over the directorial duties this time around, there's definitely something lacking from this third trip to the well. Perhaps it's just the law of diminishing returns, or familiarity breeding contempt, because there are still a number of great gags packed into the script (written by David Zucker, Pat Proft and Robert LoCash). The opening sequence, in particular, is a doozy. In fact, maybe the rest of the film simply suffers in comparison to that great comic riff on The Untouchables. The finale, taking place at the Academy Awards ceremony, may feel a bit tired and desperate, but it's hard to judge the movie too harshly when it comes as the capper to so many laughs and fun moments.

I can't imagine any fans of this type of humour hating this film, but a sense of disappointment may well outweigh a lot of the good feeling. I still like this, I just like it less than the first two movies. But those first two movies, to be fair, were SO good.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Film-Favorites-Nielsen-Wrongfully-Accused/dp/B00AMSQBUI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398040171&sr=8-2&keywords=naked+gun

April Fools: The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)

Leslie Nielsen returns as Frank Drebin in this comedy sequel that almost holds up as well as the first movie, thanks to the gags having the same level of both quantity and quality.

Some time has passed since the events of the first movie, of course, and Drebin and Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley) are no longer together. Which makes things extra awkward when Drebin suspects Quentin Hapsburg (Robert Goulet) of being involved in a scheme to kidnap a scientist (Richard Griffiths) who is about to advise the President Of The United States, and other important folk, on the advantages of solar energy.

With the main cast members all returning from the first movie, and game performances from Goulet and Griffiths, this is a film that will easily please fans of Drebin and co. There's also some fun to be had with lookalikes of George Bush Sr. and his wife, Barbara, to make up for the lack of any involvement by Queen Elizabeth II this time around.

David Zucker also returns to direct, and he co-wrote the script with Pat Proft. The two men show, once again, that they are always reliable when it comes to setting up numerous zingers, be they one-liners, visual gags, or the many wonderful blink-and-miss-them details that often loiter on the edges, or in the background.

Although there are many gags recycled from the first movie (and, of course, the TV show that started it all off), this isn't a case of familiarity breeding contempt. No. This is warm, comforting stuff. You can watch the movie and know that you're in safe hands, whether they belong to Zucker and Proft, or Nielsen and his talented co-stars. Everyone is aiming to provide you with the laughs, and they do just that. Of course, it helps that in between the many familiar gags there are a number of original moments that are absolute crackers.

Basically, if you loved the first movie then you should love this one. And if you didn't love the first movie then you and I have nothing more to say to one another. Yes, sometimes I AM that judgmental.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Naked-Gun-Trilogy-DVD/dp/B000A52A8U/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1397044087&sr=8-5&keywords=the+naked+gun

April Fools: The Naked Gun (1988)

Anyone who watched Police Squad! was already aware of how great both it, and the main character (a cop named Frank Drebin, played by Leslie Nielsen), was. Unfortunately, not many people watched Police Squad! At least, not on the first time around anyway. It was poorly rated and cancelled after one season of six episodes. Thankfully, that scenario eventually led to a trilogy of movies developed from the premise, which just goes to show you that sometimes bad decisions lead to great consequences.

Nielsen is still Frank Drebin, and Drebin is still as insensitive and incompetent as ever. But he may be the best man for the job when he realises that there's a plot to assassinate the Queen while she's in his fair city. He's convinced that it's something to do with the smooth Vincent Ludwig (Ricardo Montalban) but he can't get any proof, meaning that nobody else will believe him. At least he manages to find solace in the arms of the beautiful Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley), but will their relationship survive the situation. And will the Queen survive her visit?

ZAZ (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker) give comedy fans another modern classic here. They helped to craft the script, with help from Pat Proft, and it's almost as good as the mighty Airplane! Almost. The character of Drebin is hilariously oblivious throughout the movie, an American take on Inspector Clouseau, with an even richer seam of stupidity to be mined, and this helps to make every gag funnier. One-liners mix with hilarious visual jokes and set-pieces to provide non-stop laughter for fans of this particular type of comedy, and David Zucker also does a good job in the role of director. He doesn't need to do anything too special, but he makes room for each and every gag, even if it's something that viewers don't notice until a second or third viewing.

Nielsen is great in a role that he seemed born to play (even if he turned to comedy relatively late in his career), but he's given great support from George Kennedy, the lovely Miss Presley, Montalban, Nancy Marchand and O.J. Simpson back when he was best known for being an ex-sportsman. Everyone plays it admirably straight, no matter how ridiculous things get, and that's always been the brilliance of the best ZAZ comedies.

Hilarious and eminently rewatchable, no comedy collection should be without The Naked Gun.

9/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Naked-Gun-Trilogy-DVD/dp/B0029OMEY0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396140126&sr=8-1&keywords=naked+gun

Scary Movie 4 (2006)

It may not be quite as good as the preceding instalment, but Scary Movie 4 is a surprisingly good comedy, thanks mainly to the material being enjoyably childish as opposed to the irritating crudeness of the first two movies in the series.

This time around the series pokes fun at the Saw franchise, War Of The Worlds, The Grudge and The Village, among other targets. Anna Faris and Regina Hall both return as Cindy and Brenda, respectively, and Simon Rex, Charlie Sheen, Anthony Anderson and Kevin Hart briefly reprise their roles from the third movie, but this isn't overly concerned with maintaining any perfect continuity. It's just another opportunity to take characters that audiences seem to like and drop them into some outrageous situations.

The main new addition to the cast is Craig Bierko, playing Tom, the everyman hero based on the character played by Tom Cruise in War Of The Worlds (and, in some latter scenes, simply based on Tom Cruise in real life). When an alien invasion upsets everyone's day, Tom tries to protect his son and daughter while also assuring Cindy that they will find each other after they have both done what they have to do. Cindy, you see, is also busy trying to figure out why she keeps seeing the ghost of a small, Japanese boy and what exactly he may be trying to tell her.

The best thing to happen to the Scary Movie series is David Zucker taking over the directorial duties (well, that was the best thing to happen until the dire Scary Movie V) and this shows, once again, just how much fun he can wring out of potentially groan-inducing stuff. The script, by Craig Mazin, Pat Proft and Jim Abrahams, isn't exactly the sharpest or smartest, but Zucker puts together a fun cast and does well with budget. This isn't a movie that looks cheap, although it's worth noting that it doesn't make the mistake of looking too polished either.

The cast is a huge plus point, as it was in Scary Movie 3, with those involved including, but not limited to, Bill Pullman, Leslie Nielsen (reprising his role as the inept POTUS), Molly Shannon, Carmen Electra, Phil McGraw AKA Dr. Phil, Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Madsen, Chris Elliott (almost, but not quite, as annoying as he was in Scary Movie 2) and Cloris Leachman. Plus those already mentioned above.

If you've seen, and enjoyed, the other movies then there's no reason for you not to be pleased by this one. It's just a shame that the next film, released seven years later, was such a massive drop in quality. Viewers should stop at this one. In fact, I implore you to do so. For your own mental wellbeing.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scary-Movie-Collection-DVD/dp/B001ECPV6Q/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1377373211&sr=8-11&keywords=scary+movie

Scary Movie 3 (2003)

Written by Craig Mazin and Pat Proft, and directed by David Zucker, Scary Movie 3 tries hard to undo all of the bad work that led to the second instalment in the franchise being such a stinker. It's interesting to note that things seem considerably improved thanks to the removal from the series of anyone with the Wayans name.

The plot is absolute nonsense, blending The Ring with Signs and mixing in plenty of references to Eight Mile, The Matrix movies and The Sixth Sense. Anna Faris returns as Cindy, the nominal heroine of the franchise, and Regina Hall is Brenda Meeks once more, but this time they are joined by Simon Rex and Charlie Sheen, two actors who do much better with the comedic material than anyone named Wayans. Rex and Sheen play two brothers living on a farm, with the former wanting to make his name as a renowned rapper and the latter just wanting to be left in peace after a personal tragedy revealed during the movie.

Although I enjoy this instalment more than any other in the series, including the first movie, it still suffers from the fact that it crams in so many juvenile, lowbrow gags amongst the better moments. The Eight Mile scenes, in particular, are both amusing and absolutely on target, while so many of the other gags are thrown onscreen to see what sticks and what doesn't. The good news for all involved this time is that many of them stick.

Zucker is an old hand with this stuff, and he does fine by the material. The script may not win any prizes but it's so much better than the awful movie that preceded it that, well, maybe it should.

Faris is as likeable as ever, Hall is a lot of fun as Brenda and both Rex and Sheen are great additions to the franchise. The cast also includes Jeremy Piven, in a small but enjoyable role, Anthony Anderson and Kevin Hart having a lot of fun, Queen Latifah, Eddie Griffin and George Carlin helping to gently mock the world of The Matrix, and Leslie Nielsen as an incompetent President Of The United States.

Is it a movie I will seek out to rewatch again and again? No, none of the Scary Movie comedies will ever top my list of viewing priorities. This third outing, however, is one that I can always enjoy watching if I chance upon it while it is being shown on TV.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scary-Movie-Collection-DVD/dp/B001ECPV6Q/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1377373211&sr=8-11&keywords=scary+movie