The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

David Zucker

Writers (WGA):

Jim Abrahams (television series Police Squad) &
David Zucker (television series "Police Squad") ...

Release Date:

28 June 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime

Tagline:

If you see only one movie this year...you ought to get out more often.

Plot:

Lieutenant Drebin discovers that his ex-girlfriend's new beau is involved in a plot to kidnap a scientist who advocates solar energy.

Plot Keywords:

Kidnap | Ex Girlfriend | Business | Corporate America | Digit In Title

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Leslie Nielsen	...	Lt. Frank Drebin
Priscilla Presley	...	Jane Spencer
George Kennedy	...	Captain Ed Hocken
O.J. Simpson	...	Nordberg
Robert Goulet	...	Quentin Hapsburg
Richard Griffiths	...	Dr. Albert S. Meinheimer / Earl Hacker
Jacqueline Brookes	...	Commissioner Anabell Brumford
Anthony James	...	Hector Savage
Lloyd Bochner	...	Terence Baggett
Tim O'Connor	...	Donald Fenswick
Peter Mark Richman	...	Arthur Dunwell
Ed Williams	...	Ted Olsen
John Roarke	...	President George Bush
Margery Ross	...	First Lady Barbara Bush
Peter Van Norden	...	Chief of Staff John Sununu

Also Known As:

The Naked Gun 2 1/2 (Canada: English title)
The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Brazil:Livre (DVD rating) | Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:G (Quebec) | Chile:TE | Finland:K-10/7 | Germany:12 | Ireland:15 | Netherlands:AL | Peru:PT | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles Harbor, San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The opening credits sequence ends with Zsa Zsa Gabor slapping the police car. In 1989 Gabor was arrested for slapping a police officer and driving with an expired license.

Goofs:

Factual errors: After the zoo escape scene, a giraffe runs by the camera making a noise. Giraffes make no "vocal" sounds.

Quotes:

Lt. Frank Drebin: Congratulations, Ed! I hear Edna's pregnant again.
Ed Hocken: Yeah, and when I find the guy that did it...

Movie Connections:

Spoofs "The Twilight Zone: To Serve Man (#3.24)" (1962)

Soundtrack:

DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD

Consistently amusing with a hatful of belly laughs – fans of the genre and the series will love it

When a bomb goes off in the offices of a research body looking an alternative energy sources, Lieutenant Frank Drebin is put on the case. Things are made harder when he finds that his ex-girlfriend (Jane) is one of the staff there. As unlikely as it seems, Drebin uncovers a sinister plot involving the heavy fuel lobby to kidnap the President's adviser and replace him with a look-alike that will say what they want. However, with nobody believing him, Frank is forced to take action to expose the leader of the plot – Jane's new lover, Quentin Hapsburg.

Following on from the success of the first film, Frank Drebin is given a second outing and, as before, the humour is silly but comes in heavy doses, creating a pretty consistent tone to the film. The plot is, of course, nonsense and all you really need to know is that, as before, Drebin uncovers a plot that nobody believes while at the same time having love life problems – but surely nobody will be watching this for the plot (and don't call me Shirley). Instead you will come to this for the steady delivery of absurdly silly jokes, all delivered with straight faces from all the cast. It is rather hit and miss but mostly the jokes are amusing even if there aren't as many laugh out loud moments as I would have liked. The addition of a lot of crude material didn't help and I felt it sucked a bit of the sense of fun out of the film.

That is not to say that I didn't laugh out loud (I did) but most of the time I was just chuckling – which is good enough for my money. A big reason the film is funny is the cast. As always, Nielsen is brilliant at this sort of thing when he is given the material. Here he is not as good as his best stuff (due to the material) but he is still the core of this film and is consistently good. Presley has less to do but is good at the straight-faced stuff. OJ and Kennedy have small roles but they are funny with what they have. Goulet is not as good as Montalban from the first film but he has some nice moments.

Overall this is very funny if you are in the mood and, even if you're not, there is still much to enjoy here and it is consistently pretty funny with a real hatful of belly laughs. Not the most high brow of entertainment then but, if you're a fan of the genre then you should love this.