Tag Archives: Leslie Nielsen

Horror Film Review: Forbidden Planet (dir by Fred M. Wilcox)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In general, I’m not really a huge fan of science fiction. A lot of that is because I tend to get bored with the huge mythologies that come along with most science fiction franchises. I don’t care who the best Star Trek captain is. Some of the Star Wars films were enjoyable, but I roll my eyes whenever I meet people who are pedantic about referring to the first movie as A New Hope. My dislike of Avatar is well-known, though it’s actually softened a bit now that everyone else seems to dislike it as well. (I find much of the current dislike to be performative, whereas mine was sincere. I disliked Avatar before it became cool to do so.) Most of the science fiction films that I have enjoyed have either poked fun at the genre (like the Guardians of the Galaxy films), were directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner), have featured giant monsters that were created by radiation, or are Italian (like Starcrash).

That said, I absolutely love Forbidden Planet.

First released in 1956, Forbidden Planet stars a young, handsome, and stalwart Leslie Nielsen as John J. Adams, the commander of the starship C-57D. Adams and his crew are on a mission to investigate what happened to an expedition to the planet Altair IV. As C-57D approaches the planet, they get a message warning them not to land on the planet for safety reasons. Adams ignores the message. When the ship—which rather charmingly is made up to look like a classic flying saucer—lands, Adams and his crew are met by a robot named Robby who takes them to meet his creator, Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon). Morbius explains that he and his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) are the only survivors of the expedition and that there is an unseen force on the planet that attacks anyone who lands on the surface… anyone other than Morbius and his daughter. Morbius politely suggests that Adams should go back to Earth. Adams says that he can’t do anything until he gets orders…

Despite all of the grim talk about an unseen presence, Forbidden Planet actually starts off as being almost a comedy. With the exception of Commander Adams, Doc (Warren Stevens), and Lt. Jerry Farman (Jack Kelly), the C-57D seems to be exclusively manned by goofy guys who can’t get over the fact that there’s a woman on the planet. (Adams mentions that the crew has been in space for nearly two years.) The Cook (Earl Holliman) wants some alcohol and Robby the Robot knows just how to make it. Fortunately, Leslie Nielsen didn’t have his trademark white hair when he appeared in this film. Otherwise, I don’t know if I’d be able to handle his deadpan, dramatic delivery.

Things change when the unseen attack turns out to be real and starts attacking the ship. A lot of those likably goofy characters end up dying. And when Adams discovers what is truly the source of the monster… well, let’s just say that I imagine the subtext was missed by a lot of the kids who probably made up the film’s initial audience. There’s no silliness to be found in the film’s final moments, with the monster burning away a door that was supposed to be impenetrable and Morbius finally confronting the truth of what really happened to the expedition.

I can’t really remember how old I was when I first saw Forbidden Planet. It came on television one October night and I watched it with my Dad. I thought Robby the Robot was adorable, but what truly stuck with me was the scene where the monster walks into an electrified force field and is suddenly visible.

The way the monster roars and swats at the crew of the ship has always stuck with me. And once we discover the true origins of the monster, the scenes take on an entirely new meaning.

(The monster is so terrifying that even Robby the Robot shuts down rather than face it. It’s an underrated moment of fright. If even Robby can’t battle the monster, what hope is there for anyone else on the planet?)

Leslie Nielsen is likable but a little boring as the male lead. Anne Francis overacts a bit as Altaira. It doesn’t matter. Walter Pidgeon’s intense performance is the one that you remember. Forbidden Planet is an intelligent and thought-provoking film, one that holds up even today. I may not like science fiction, but I will watch it every October.

 

Horror on TV: Thriller 1.1 “The Twisted Image”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight’s excursion into televised horror is the very first episode of Boris Karloff’s Thriller!

Thriller was an anthology series that lasted from 1960 to 1962.  Each episode presented a new story of horror and/or suspense.  What makes this series especially memorable is that each episode was introduced by none other than Boris Karloff!  I’ve seen a few episodes of Thriller (the entire series is on YouTube) and, to be honest, it’s kind of a hit-or-miss show.  But Karloff and that mischievous twinkle in his eye makes it all worth it!

This episode originally aired on September 13th, 1960.  It’s called The Twisted Image and stars Leslie Neilsen as a man being stalked by two mentally disturbed individuals.  This episode was well-directed by Arthur Hiller and, if it’s more of a suspense story than a horror story, it still has its creepy moments.

Nightstick (1987, directed by Joseph L. Scanlan)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The three Bantam Brothers (Walker Boone, Tony DeSantis, and Dave Mucci) have just gotten out of prison and they’ve all already stolen several pounds of explosives.  Pretending to be international terrorists, they try to blackmail banker Adam Beardsley (John Vernon) into paying them off.  Deputy Police Commissioner Ray Melton (Robert Vaughn) wants to go by the book but his superior, Thad Evans (Leslie Nielsen), realizes that this case is going to require a cop who is willing to break all the rules.  It’s time to call in Jack Calhoun (Bruce Fairbairn).

When this movie started, I assumed that it was a comedy.  The title sounded like a double entendre and Leslie Nielsen’s name was right there in the opening credits.  The opening heist scene also felt like a comedy, up until the Bantam brothers started shooting people.  That was when I realized that this movie was supposed to be a drama.  Why would you cast a post-Airplane! Leslie Nielsen in a serious cop film?  This film did come out before The Naked Gun but it was still after Nielsen sent up every cop show ever made with the original Police Squad television series.  .And then, on top of Nielsen, the film gives us Robert Vaughn and a very grumpy John Vernon.  All it needed was OJ Simpson as Calhoun’s partner.

Even though the movie was a drama, it still felt like a comedy.  Bruce Fairbairn wasn’t much of a cop but luckily, the three Bantam brothers weren’t that much of a group of criminals.  Jack Calhoun had a girlfriend (Kerrie Keane) who constantly reminded him that he could have been having sex with her if he wasn’t constantly searching for the Bantam brothers.  “I can’t be in two places at once,” Calhoun said with a sigh.  I’m still not convinced this wasn’t a comedy.

Nightstick was originally made for Canadian television.  When it first aired, it was called Calhoun.  The name was changed to Nightstick for the video release, even though no one in the movie uses a nightstick.  Calhoun uses a gun and, at one point, a binder but he doesn’t carry a nightstick.  Maybe his character should have been named Jack Nightstick to make the title work.

Did I hallucinate this movie?  I’m pretty sure it was a comedy.

 

Camouflage (2000, directed by James Keach)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

It’s strange to hear Leslie Nielsen drop an F bomb.

That was my main though I watched Camouflage.  Leslie Nielsen plays a hard-boiled private detective named Jack Potter who reluctantly takes on an apprentice named Matty McKenzie (Lochlyn Munro).  Mostly to get Matty, a failed stage actor, out of his hair, Jack sends him to handle a minor case in the small town of Beaver Ridge.  The minor case becomes a major case when it becomes clear that a murder is being planned.

Camouflage starts out like a typical Leslie Nielsen mockbuster, with Nielsen providing a ridiculous, Frank Drebin-style narration.  But the film itself develops into a dark comedy where Matty finds himself in a small town where everyone’s got secret.  Nielsen gives an almost-serious performance as Potter, playing him as a cynic with a tragic backstory and little patience for his protegee.  There’s a tonal imbalance between the moments of broad comedy and the more serious moments and the film doesn’t work as a result but it is interesting to see a post-Airplane! Leslie Nielsen playing things relatively straight.

One interesting thing about Camouflage is that it was written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson but, in the final cut, the screenplay is credited to Reginald Perry.  (The small town setting is one that Thornton used frequently in his scripts and it’s easy to imagine him playing the role of Jack Potter in alternate version of this film.)  Camouflage reportedly sat on the shelf for quite a while before it was finally given a release and Nielsen’s narration often feels like it was something that was added in post-production to try to both bring the disjointed film together and to draw in the Naked Gun fans.  I have a feeling the story behind this film is probably more interesting than the film itself.

The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994, directed by Peter Segal)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Mad bomber Rollo Dillon (Fred Ward) has been hired by terrorists to bomb a major American institution.  Captain Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) and Detective Nordberg (O.J. Simpson) know that there’s only one man who can handle this job and his name is Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen).  Frank, however, has retired from Police Squad and promised his wife, Jane (Priscilla Presley), that he is through with police work.

At heart, Frank remains a cop.  He even dreams of shoot-outs.  When he tries to do police work without Jane noticing, it backfires on him.  Even though Frank lies and claims that he’s just having an affair, Jane leaves him.  Frank, with nothing better to do, goes into prison undercover to gain Rollo’s confidence.  After Rollo and Frank escape, Frank discovers that Rollo and his girlfriend (Anna Nicole Smith) is planning on bombing the Academy Awards!

The Naked Gun 33 1/3 is the weakest of the original Police Squad films, which is to say that it’s still pretty funny, even if some of the jokes no longer feel as fresh as they did in the previous films.  It opens with a brilliant send-up of the shoot-out from The Untouchables and it ends with a perfect parody of the Academy Awards.  (Pia Zadora singing This Could Be The Start Of Something Big is funny because it’s exactly the sort of thing that used to happen at the Oscars.)  It’s in the middle section that the film drags, though there are still things that made me laugh, like a flashback to Frank, Ed, and Nordberg in the 70s.  David Zucker did not return to direct this installment and his absence is definitely felt.

Leslie Nielsen is as funny as ever and he’s well-matched with George Kennedy and Priscila Presley.  (OJ Simpson’s presence is as awkward as ever.)  Fred Ward plays his villainous role straight, a smart move.  But then you’ve got Anna Nicole Smith, who was such a terrible actress that her presence in the film doesn’t even work as a joke.  Whenever Smith shows up, the film grinds to a halt.  It’s the worst type of stunt casting.

This was Leslie Nielsen final performance as Frank Drebin.  Even in a lesser film, he was still a comedic treasure.

The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell Fear (1991, directed by David Zucker)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Frank Drebin is back!

Now separated from Jane (Priscilla Presley) and working in Washington D.C., Frank (Leslie Nielsen) finds himself investigating a bombing at the offices of Dr. Albert S. Meinheimer (Richard Griffiths), an advocate of renewable energy who has just been put in charge of America’s energy policies by President George H.W. Bush (John Roarke, who was better-known for playing Ronald Reagan on Friday’s).  With the help of Captain Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) and Officer Nordberg (O.J. Simpson), Drebin’s investigation leads him to Quentin Haspburg (Robert Goulet), an oilman who is plotting on replacing Dr. Meinheimer with a double.  It also leads him back to Jane, who is now working as an assistant to Meinheimer and being wooed by Hapsburg.

The Naked Gun 2 1/2 is a worthy sequel to the first Naked Gun.  It’s more plot-heavy than the first film and some of the jokes feel a little bit too familiar but it’s still a very funny film.  That’s largely due to Neilsen, Kennedy, and Presley, all of whom really commit to playing their absurd characters.  (Robert Goulet gives a game performance but he really can’t match Ricardo Montalban’s villainous turn in the first movie.)  Nielsen was probably the only actor alive who could keep a straight face even while hitting Barbara Bush in the face while opening a door and then struggling to eat lobster at a state dinner.  As was often the case with the ZAZ films (even though Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker didn’t have anything to do with the screenplay of the sequel), the funniest moments are also the most random and the stupidest.  I laughed a lot harder than I should have at Leslie Neilsen struggling with a very small towel that had been thrown against his face.  And don’t worry, O.J. Simpson fans.  Nordberg gets injured in this movie too.

Leslie Nielsen was one of those actors who could make anything funny.  Whether he was delivering his hard-boiled dialogue or doing absurd physical comedy with an absolutely straight face, it was impossible not to laugh when Leslie Nielsen was onscreen.  He was a true cinematic treasure.

 

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988, directed by David Zucker)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Let’s take a moment to appreciate Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), a true American hero.

Even though Frank is just a Los Angeles cop, he still goes to the Middle East and disrupts a conference of America’s greatest enemies.  He beats up Fidel Castro.  He knocks out Gadafi and Yasser Arafat.  He cleans Gorbachev’s head.  (“I knew it!” he says as the birthmark disappears.)  He takes out Idi Amin and he sends the Ayatollah Khomeini through a window.  Thirty-seven years ago, this scene opened The Naked Gun and, after all that time, it is still funny because Leslie Nielsen plays it all with a straight face, delivering his silly lines without flinching.  It’s also interesting that none of the leaders taken down by Frank Drebin are around anymore.  Khomeini died just a few months after this film came out.  Gorbachev was the last to go, in 2022, by which time he was no longer an enemy.  Consider it the Frank Drebin Effect.  He’s making the world safe for democracy.

When Drebin returns to Los Angeles, he’s informed by Captain Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) that Police Squad has been put in charge of security for a visit from Queen Elizabeth (Jeanette Charles) and that Officer Nordberg (O.J. Simpson) is in the hospital and suspected of being a dirty cop.  The Mayor (Nancy Marchand) doesn’t want Los Angeles to be embarrassed by a police scandal before the Queen arrives so Drebin has 24 hours to exonerate Nordberg.  Drebin’s attempt to clear Nordberg’s name leads him to a shipping magnate (Ricardo Montalban) who has come up with a diabolical scheme to assassinate the Queen at a baseball game.  It also leads to love between Drebin and Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley).

Though Liam Neeson did a fine job in the recent reboot, there really is only one Frank Drebin and his name is Leslie Nielsen.  The original Naked Gun is nearly 40 years old and, even if some of the jokes are dated, it’s still laugh out loud funny.  Most of the credit has to go to Leslie Nielsen and ability to deliver even the most bizarre bits of dialogue with natural authority, gravitas and a straight face.  Whether he’s mumbling his way through the National Anthem, paying an informer for information, or hamming it up as an umpire, Nielsen is never less than hilarious.  By the end of the movie, it’s impossible to look at Nielsen without laughing.  Kennedy, Presely, and Montalban also generate their share of laughs.  John Houseman has a great cameo as an unflappable driving instructor.  (“Now, extend your middle finger.”)  As for OJ Simpson, he doesn’t seem to be in on the joke like the rest of the cast but he does frequently get injured and re-injured throughout the movie and there’s definitely some pleasure to be found in that.

(When Simpson died, director David Zucker said, “His acting was a lot like his murdering: He got away with it, but no one believed him.”  That sounds about right.)

Liam Neeson made for a fine Frank Drebin, Jr.  I hope he has many more adventures.  But the greatest Frank Drebin will always be Leslie Nielsen and the original Naked Gun will always be one of my favorite comedies.  Sometimes, it’s good just to laugh.

Thank you, David Zuker.

Thank you, Jerry Zucker.

Thank you, Jim Abrahams.

And most of all, thank you, Leslie Nielsen.

Holidays On The Lens: Santa Who? (dir by William Dear)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh no!  Santa Claus has amnesia!

That’s the premise behind this 2000 Christmas movie, which features Leslie Nielsen as the amnesiac Santa.  Having fallen out of his sleigh, Santa finds himself in Los Angeles.  When a reporter (Steven Eckholdt) comes across Santa, he does a story about him.  Santa becomes a mini-celebrity and gets a job as a department store version of himself.  While his elves search for him, Santa struggles to recover his memory.

It’s a cute little made-for-TV movie.  Leslie Nielsen as Santa?  Who could resist that?

Brad reviews THE NAKED GUN (2025), starring Liam Neeson!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

When I first saw that THE NAKED GUN was being rebooted with Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin, Jr., I must admit that I was quite skeptical. You see, the original THE NAKED GUN (1988) with Leslie Nielsen came out when I was 15 years old, and I remember watching it at the movie theater on a field trip with our high school’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club. I loved it so much! I eagerly watched THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2 (1991) and NAKED GUN 33 1/3 (1994) at the theaters as well. To be completely honest, this series is one of my favorites of my “growing into an adult” years, and I didn’t want to see it screwed up. When the trailer was released a couple of months ago my reaction was cautious optimism as I must admit it looked quite funny, and I decided that I would go watch it in the theater when it came out. Well, tonight my wife and I headed to the Cinemark in Little Rock to see what director Akiva Schaffer and his crew had come up with…

In THE NAKED GUN (2025), dedicated Detective Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) follows in his father’s footsteps by leading Police Squad and causing an endless array of problems for Police Chief Davis (CCH Pounder). When a bank heist is staged by Sig Gustafson (Kevin Durand) in order to obtain a mysterious P.L.O.T. Device, Drebin teams up with his partner, Captain Ed Hocken Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser), and the beautiful crime novelist Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson) to investigate. Their subsequent probe leads them to tech mogul Richard Cane (Danny Huston) and his sinister plot to use the device to revert humanity to a base barbaric state as the balls drop on New Year’s Eve. With the help of his deceased father’s spirit that’s being housed in the body of a large owl, Drebin goes all out to foil Cane’s plans while simultaneously falling in love with Beth! 

I’m going to go ahead and alleviate any suspense and state that I love the new NAKED GUN movie. I laughed out loud throughout the entire film, including the end credits, and I wasn’t the only one as there were people in our showing that were laughing much louder than me. It was a fun “crowd experience,” and I’m so glad we caught it in the theater. Not every joke is funny, but in the tradition of the original series, they come so fast and furious that there’s a good chance the next joke will be hilarious. Liam Neeson does a great job as Frank Drebin, Jr., infusing the character with just the right amount of seriousness to allow the absurdity all around him to be played for laughs. I told a friend a few months ago that I’d be really impressed if Neeson was able to pull this role off, and I’m glad to report that he passes with flying colors. He doesn’t make you forget the comedic genius of Leslie Nielsen, but he’s darn good. And Pamela Anderson is perfect in the crime novelist / love interest role. I haven’t seen her in anything in a long time, but she’s truly hilarious in the film. After watching her performance, I honestly don’t think any actress could have done any better. The rest of the game cast, including Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston and Kevin Durand each have good moments that add to the fun. I also enjoyed some of the specific throwbacks to the original series, including brief appearances by Priscilla Presley, Weird Al Yankovic, and especially the stuffed beaver, which got a big laugh out of me, just like it did when I was 15! 

Overall, I had a great time at the movie theater with THE NAKED GUN (2025). Director Akiva Schaffer delivers a hilarious, 85 minute film that’s a worthy follow-up to the original Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker / Leslie Nielsen classics. What else could you ask for?!!

Brad’s Scene of the Day – THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2 (1991) – Richard Griffiths goes airborne!!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

In honor of actor Richard Griffiths, on what would have been his 78th birthday, and the impending release of the new NAKED GUN film starring Liam Neeson, I present this fun scene from THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2: THE SMELL OF FEAR. Enjoy my friends!