Naked Gun 33⅓ - The Final Insult

Police Squad! (in color) is one of my favourite TV shows, however the longer movie series that followed it has always fallen a bit flat on me.

I guess with a whole 90 minutes to fill, gags take a bit longer to happen, although the same creators' earlier film Airplane! avoided that trap.

Although the first half of Naked Gun 33⅓ didn't do much for me, (being as it is quite rude, unlike the TV show) the second half is much cleverer. And the whole thing is absolutely crammed to bursting with slapstick and one-liners, which made me wonder just how much longer such a frantic pace could be maintained.

Leslie Nielsen gets to do several mute sequences, which lend themselves very well to both his deadpan expressions, and the genre's ridiculous extremeties.

One of the reasons why I've left it so many years before watching this movie is because, every time it's on TV, it's always billed for such a short running-time. That has always made it look as though it's been edited down for the telly. Actually it's quite a short film anyway, (only 83 minutes) although even with so many of the credits cut-out by nasty old Channel 4, it still feels like it's much longer. Of course it does – there's just so much packed in here.

All this, and Weird Al too!

It's a great return to form for the series' final (at present) episode.