THE NAKED GUN
(15) 85mins
★★★★★
IT’S shaping up for a year of unlikely bedfellows - and , and , and now and .
The Irish Oscar-nominated star of Schindler’s List told reporters “I’m madly in love” with the former actress after filming this remake together.
At the premieres and in , they’ve been giggling like school kids.
That offscreen chemistry is every bit as impressive on screen, with shapely Pamela smouldering as she paws at her handsome co-star.
What’s even more surprising is that Neeson, best known for playing the tough guy in the Taken series, is so good at .
Just like the late Leslie Nielsen from the 1988 original, he’s a serious actor who is funny because he’s not trying to be funny.
It’s beyond me how he keeps a straight face while wearing a skirt that reveals strawberry-pattern pants underneath.
In the 2025 reboot, Neeson plays Lt Frank Drebin Jr, who is the son of Nielsen’s character in the original trio of movies.
As with Nielsen’s Drebin he’s an accident-prone detective who finds himself caught up in a dastardly plot.
Pamela’s Beth Davenport points the bumbling cop in the right direction and they fall for each other.
Remarkably, Neeson turning out to be a comedy genius is not the most surprising thing about The Naked Gun.
What’s really unusual about this remake is that it’s not a pale imitation of the original. Producer Seth MacFarlane, best known for the Family Guy TV series, and director Akiva Schaffer (Saturday Night Live) have not altered the winning formula of the original too much.
It is packed with corny jokes, such as Lt Drebin telling Beth “take a chair” and her then walking off with one of the stools.
There are also edgier ones that have earned the film a 15 certification. A perfectly innocent encounter between Drebin, Beth and a dog takes on an X-rated appearance through an infrared camera.
David Zucker, who directed the first two Naked Gun movies, also put adult material into his comedies.
Not all of the gags work, but they come so thick and fast, I found myself laughing more than I have done in a cinema for years.
It’s so funny I’m even hoping for a sequel. Now, that’s really surprising.
GRANT ROLLINGS
DOGSPIRACY
(12A) 98mins
★★☆☆☆
JUMPING on the bandwagon of movies with “piracy” in their titles, this has nothing to do with canine pirates.
Instead, like Seaspiracy and Cowspiracy, it is about a “conspiracy”.
British vet Dr Marc Abraham believes “dark forces” keep puppy farms in business.
He fronts this film which sets out to expose what can be a cruel trade, with sometimes kept in filthy, cramped conditions.
I expected lots of footage of undercover animal rights campaigners revealing such terrible behaviour, but sadly, the film’s producers don’t appear to have secured the rights to show much of this readily available material.
Instead we see Marc watching it on his laptop in a cafe from an angle that reveals nothing. There are disturbing images of farms in Eastern , but this film’s focus is on the US.
There, showing off his chest hair in the cold, Marc gets excited about being able to take his camera crew into an Amish puppy mill - which has heated floors and is spotless.
This is no hard-hitting documentary . . . I was sold a pup.
GRANT ROLLINGS
SAVAGES
(PG) 87mins
★★★☆☆
STOP-MOTION splendour meets an urgent call to protect the rainforest in this heartfelt animation from My Life As A Courgette director Claude Barras.
In this follow-up, Barras swaps the orphanage of his debut for the endangered rainforests of Borneo.
The story follows Kéria, a spirited teenager living on the edge of the forest with her widowed father, who reluctantly works for a palm‑oil plantation.
Kéria’s world is upended when young cousin Selaï moves in with them after his home is destroyed.
The pair, along with Oshi, an orphaned orangutan, then embark on an adventure blending environmental urgency with personal discovery.
The villains - swaggering plantation bosses - are rendered in broad strokes, but the film’s honesty keeps it compelling.
Armed only with blowpipes that fire harmless darts, the locals’ stand becomes a symbol of defiance against greed and intimidation.
Savages’ clever blend of charm, ecological awareness and cultural respect makes it a winning, if slightly conventional, addition to contemporary animation.
LINDA MARRIC
