One of 2025’s best movies is now available to stream at home

The film has an 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Accessible through the service NOW, the film is a reboot of the classic Leslie Nielsen-starring trilogy of comedies that spoof cop dramas.

Irish Oscar-nominee Liam Neeson (Five Minutes of Heaven, Taken) stars in the sequel as Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr, the son of Nielsen's character in the originals.

The movie sees Drebin Jr investigate two cases, a suspicious death and the theft of a gadget, known as the 'P.L.O.T. (Primordial Law of Toughness) Device', from a bank safe deposit box.

With the help of a scat-singing crime novelist (Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl), who has a connection to the deceased, the lieutenant realises that the crimes are linked and must race to "save the world".

The Naked Gun Trailer

Co-written and directed by Akiva Schaffer (The Lonely Island), The Naked Gun was a hit at the box office and with critics, earning over $100 million and an 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

It's easy to see why, as Neeson is perfectly cast in the comedy.

The film is dense with witty one-liners, as well as absurd visual gags and situations. Yet, the Irish actor rarely tones down his trademark intense gravitas, playing all the scenes straight in a way that truly maximises the humour.

JOE interviewed Anderson, Neeson, Schaffer and several others involved with The Naked Gun ahead of its cinema release last year.

Playing Drebin Jr's cop pal in the movie, actor Paul Walter Hauser told us that Neeson was so funny on-set that Hauser struggled to get through certain scenes without "giggling like a five-year-old".

Despite this, however, Neeson revealed he was slightly nervous to headline a big comedy for the first time.

The Oscar nominee said to JOE about The Naked Gun:

"I had done a couple of little TV skits and they were maybe two minutes long, three minutes. But a film, that's at least 90 minutes long.

"It was a little bit intimidating. But there was a part of me that trusted something inside myself - not that I thought I'm funny but just, I thought I would be okay if I'm surrounded with a great group of actors and actresses.

"Akiva Schaffer, our writer/director, I trusted implicitly and the note I gave myself each day was: 'Just be serious, don't try and be funny.'"

Indeed, Schaffer was full of praise for Neeson.

When we mention how the Irish actor was nervous about starring in a comedy, Schaffer noted: "He's very humble. He knew enough [that] it was a good idea to say yes to [producer Seth MacFarlane] when Seth brought it up.

"What ZAZ [The Naked Gun creators Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker] did was hire dramatic actors who could just play the scenes real and then it'd be 10 times funnier how ridiculous the script was and what's happening is.

"So, we were using their template. That's why it's Liam Neeson, not Will Ferrell."

Hauser also said Neeson makes for a "weirdly perfect" successor to Leslie Nielsen.

"It's not just that their names sound oddly similar. It's like Dermot Mulroney and Dylan McDermott," Hauser joked.

"I think it works because Liam is a classically trained dramatic actor, who's done action, and Leslie was of a similar background.

"They're turning it on its head by lampooning and parodying the very thing that they've made careers on previously. So that in of itself is oddly fated, such a weirdly fated thing."

The Naked Gun's producer Erica Huggins reiterated this point, stating: "[Neeson] had the baggage in all the right ways. He was a dramatic actor with a certain kind of gravitas that we all expect to be a certain way," an expectation that could then be twisted for comedic effect.

That being said, director Schaffer explained that one of the funniest gags in the movie came from Neeson himself.

The filmmaker revealed to JOE:

"[Neeson] did not need any convincing to be silly. The shot that's in the trailer where you see him in the little girl outfit with the strawberry underpants, the strawberry underpants were his idea.

"So, he did not need anything. But he did at the end of day go: 'Is it working?'

When JOE brings up the strawberry underwear to Neeson, he says:

"I certainly wanted the skirt a little bit shorter. I just thought it would be a more funny visual gag."

The Naked Gun is currently streaming through the service NOW and Sky Cinema Premiere.

@joedotie “There are sketches that have been written” 👀 We chatted to Akiva Schaffer of The Lonely Island about the possibility of a new season of I Think You Should Leave 👏 The Naked Gun hits Irish theatres on 1st August 😍 #irish #ireland #thenakedgun #thelonelyisland #ithinkyoushouldleave #timrobinson #andysamberg #liamneeson #pamelaanderson ♬ original sound - JOE.ie