THE NAKED GUN 2½: THE SMELL OF FEAR (1991)

Reviewing a comedy risks inviting all the hackneyed clichés, such as opening with the declarative statement that it has to be more than simply listing all the good jokes. Roger Ebert, when reviewing this film, mused: “What can usefully be said about this movie, other than the essential information that I laughed?” In the decades since, The Naked Gun (1988-1994) trilogy has endured as one of the funniest laugh-fests of all time. Ruthless in its relentlessness, from wordplay to sight gags, even the credits follow up the “Best Boy” position with “Worst Boy: Adolf Hitler”. There is no escape from infectious giggles and riotous belly laughs. Well, people have found their own reprieve, of sorts.

Amongst esteemed comedy enthusiasts, an almost obligatory heads-up has developed — a reverent nod toward the original that obeys the maxim that sequels are never as good. Like a drunk mime in a bar fight, I am all talk, and I may be making a mistake by claiming that this follow-up is just as good, perhaps even better.

The dizzying highs of The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) could have the extended Wayans family on each other’s shoulders and they still wouldn’t come close. Once Lt Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) enters Dodger Stadium, few comedies on Earth can reach that blissful nirvana. The film works flawlessly by itself, and the time spent establishing characters, setting, and story is remarkably efficient. Yet, there’s a cosy familiarity with follow-ups. Everyone knows the drill, so The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear can start at 100mph and never slow down.

Granted, the engine required to reach those speeds is quite a bit louder on the second lap. The wordplay and double entendres that subtly developed the first time round have made way for the broad slapstick once used merely for punctuation. The sequel has to be Faster! Funnier! Louder! But then, the first opened with Drebin rubbing the fake birthmark off Mikhail Gorbachev’s head, and the second has him slamming a door into the face of Barbara Bush (Margery Ross). With so many cringe comedies, there is something deeply comforting about Nielsen being oblivious to the amount of elder abuse he is inflicting, and everyone around him, including Bush herself, politely attempting not to make a big deal of it all.

Does this bombastic nature ever go too far? Drebin does effectively 69 an exasperated Richard Griffiths on a runaway electric wheelchair that launches him across the sky like E.T. Drebin also rides a tank through a zoo, which pays off with a witty one-two punch: “Do you realise because of you this city is being overrun by baboons?” “Well, isn’t that the fault of the voters?” Then the main villain ridiculously, yet not implausibly, gets mauled by a lion.

There is also the shameless lampshading of the entire plot. They sneak the real Griffiths into the third-act ballroom disguised as a Mariachi band, and they end up playing on stage when the imposter Griffiths is right there in the audience — an exact double who is described as a foot taller and left-handed. Finally, the real Griffiths gets to deliver the all-important speech, which is so dull that everybody falls asleep.

To lend credence to both sides of the quality debate, the talent involved is very much more of the same, yet ever so distinct. David Zucker returns as director and screenwriter, but the credits of his ZAZ writing partners, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, are a misnomer. Neither contributed directly to writing new material, as they were busy venturing into drama with Ghost (1990), but they were credited because so many jokes were lifted directly from their TV series Police Squad! (1982). Pat Proft worked alongside Zucker on the screenplay; a close friend who also wrote for the series and the first film, Proft co-created the Police Academy (1984-1994) franchise and would go on to write a great deal of Nielsen’s comedies.

Having worked over so much law-enforcement material already, their interests veered toward fresher angles. This is ironic, since 2½ could be seen as one of the forerunners of parodies becoming steadily more dated. From the opening credits featuring Zsa Zsa Gabor recreating her real-life police-slapping incident, to a portrait of Michael Dukakis hanging beside the Hindenburg and Titanic in a disaster-themed restaurant, you may have to explain these jokes to the kids.

The hot-button topic at the time was the looming ecological emergency. By the time Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) featured Dr Evil air-quoting “ozone layer”, global warming and the Exxon Valdez oil spill were already old news. Having the story centre on preventing President George H. W. Bush (John Roarke) from favouring renewable energy does not seem to be a laughing matter to Zucker, an actual environmentalist who actively advocates for electric cars and green groups.

Instead, the oddly persistent digs at “ancient history, like the Democratic party” or Drebin dreaming of a world “where the Democrats will put up somebody worth voting for” mark a turning point for a disenfranchised centrist. Sure, The Simpsons in 1994 was taking frustrated potshots, such as a DNC banner reading “We hate life and ourselves”, but at the very least this is a shrugging observation from a filmmaker who later argued “it’s hard to be a conservative in Hollywood” and paid off that setup with the punchline that is An American Carol (2008).

The less said about Nielsen starring in that film the better, especially when he so effortlessly returns as the clueless yet charming Frank Drebin. Having already shown his comedic chops in Airplane! (1980), The Naked Gun marked the second peak of his career, allowing him to flourish by cashing in on his recognisability with films like Repossessed! (1990) and many more soon after. With films like Wrongly Accused (1998), people only remember the few standout highlights, whereas here it is all too easy to string together the entire film while recalling the laughs.

Like the humour itself, Nielsen’s performance is still irreplaceable, though not identical to past efforts. His stone-faced delivery in Airplane! has softened into the goofy grandpa figure he has been immortalised as ever since. There are more winks, gawks, and brazen double-takes that, in a lesser film, would betray a nervous disposition trying to nudge the audience into laughing. Nielsen is simply having as good a time as we are; when he trips over the wire of an atomic bomb and safely unplugs it, his humble shrug and schoolboy smirk make you feel as if everything is right in the world.

An all-American response to Inspector Clouseau, his buffoonish peculiarities are only compounded by his old-school, hard-boiled narration, which sets him further apart from 1991’s cinematic contemporaries in The Silence of the Lambs, New Jack City, and Point Break. But The Naked Gun was barely about police procedurals — not because it is a comedy, but because Drebin is a romantic at heart. Even a line as crass as “I haven’t had this much sex since I was a Boy Scout leader!” only works because we know Drebin is a good man.

Indulging in such tangents would be bothersome if the characters and actors were not so likeable. It is a great delight to see Priscilla Presley back as Jane. Unlike the ever-changing roster of Bond girls, it would be a tragic loss if Drebin moved on to another woman. He, too, feels that sting of tragedy as their relationship from the last film has broken down. It’s a safe comfort of repetition for the filmmakers, but the whirlwind rekindling is simply too sweet to criticise. Their romantic subplot also offers the prime opportunity to lampoon their friends’ success with Ghost as a cute thank-you for skipping out on this one.

Jane is never far from Drebin, so most of her comedy is one-note, but she has chances to shine, such as climbing into the fridge, the triple slap, and a duet of “The Way We Were”. She is no Enrico Pallazzo, but who is? The entire lovemaking scene has nothing to do with cops or crime, and yet all the penetration metaphors predated Austin Powers and that Drawn Together GIF everyone thinks is from Family Guy. Retreads like Jane dating the villain once again are forgiven, and Hapsburg’s (Robert Goulet) romantic pursuit is another historical nod to Elvis’s reported dislike of the fellow singer-turned-actor.

Audiences come back to all three Naked Gun films time and time again because it’s fun spending time with these goofballs. George Kennedy wields a gigantic rip-cord drilldo — what more can you ask for? “Sex, Frank?” And whenever I want to see a hilarious video of O. J. Simpson out of control, barrelling down the road and weaving through traffic, I go online and look up this film.

Richard Griffiths is a fantastic new addition, playing dual roles and hamming it up with an evil Southern persona. Goulet is an okay villain; as many have said, he is no Ricardo Montalbán, and much of his screen time is spent looking suave and then furrowing his brow at Drebin’s bizarre statements. ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, who has graced every film thus far, appears as a gun-toting thug whom Drebin inadvertently foils. Are points deducted from this sequel if it’s the only one where he does not appear as himself?

“Fun” “fact”: Weird Al is not the only musician cameo, as the suicidal blues lounge singer Colleen Fitzpatrick would soon become pop artist Vitamin C… which is a conspiracy far more preposterous than global warming. In 1991, she would have been 21, but this actress looks older than Vitamin C does in her 1999 “Graduation” music video. Despite a shoddy IMDb listing that everyone online seems to take as gospel, on Broadwayworld.com there’s another Colleen Fitzpatrick who’s also credited for Liar Liar (1997) and looks like the woman in this film. It’s an odd note to end on, but at least it’s not more lines better heard from Leslie Nielsen.

We seem to be in a parody renaissance at the moment. The Naked Gun (2025) reboot, the Scary Movie (2026) reboot, and the upcoming Spaceballs: The New One. Okay, maybe it is all old ideas, but these safer relaunches succeeding with critics, audiences, or the box office will hopefully pave the way for more original laughs. Hold on, my point was that a sequel could be just as good. A solid reminder of having the best of both worlds is that 2½ came out a month apart from an original parody title, Hot Shots! Both were commercial successes and written by Pat Proft. The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear is still the biggest box-office draw of the franchise, taking $192M on a $23M budget, which suggests it rode the wave of success while not wearing out its welcome. 2½ is like swimming in raw sewage: I love it!

USA | 1991 | 85 MINUTES | 1.85:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH • SPANISH

Cast & Crew

director: David Zucker.
writers: David Zucker, Pat Proft (based on the TV series ‘Police Squad!’ by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, & Jerry Zucker).
starring: Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, O.J Simpson, Robert Goulet, Richard Griffiths, Anthony James, Jacqueline Brookes, Ed Williams, Joan Roarke, Margery Ross, Lloyd Bochner, Tim O’Conner, Peter Mark Richman, Zsa Zsa Gabor, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic & Colleen Fitzpatrick.