On the beat

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

Based on the unsuccessful TV series Police Squad this film comes from the team behind Airplane! (1980) and stars Leslie Nielsen. A local businessman wants to kill Queen Elizabeth II when she visits LA, only Lt. Frank Drebin stands in his way.

The plot of this film is not exactly it's strong point but the fact that the script is chock full of gags covers up the cracks well. Nielsen is excellent as the bumbling and unaware of his surroundings protagonist selling all the jokes and performing the slapstick elements with a straight face when I am sure other actors could have gone over the top. This film is definitely up there with the earlier Airplane! (1980) in terms of quality and maybe even fits in more jokes.

4/5