Tag: Akiva Schaffer

The Naked Gun (2025) | REVIEW

Liam Neeson in THE NAKED GUN — PHOTO: Paramount Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Akiva Schaffer — Screenplay by Dan Gregor, Doug Mand, and Akiva Schaffer.

One of the best pieces of marketing for a film that I’ve seen this year is an ad for The Naked Gun that features Liam Neeson prominently asking viewers to go back to theaters to watch comedy films. At the end of the ad, we hear Liam Neeson do a classic Leslie Nielsen-style fart-machine joke. It is a delightfully silly note to end on, but the message at the heart of the ad rings true. Comedy films have largely been relegated to being streaming fodder. If you want to watch a new comedy film, you’re more likely to find one on Netflix or on Amazon Prime Video than in the movie theaters. For example, Happy Gilmore 2 recently premiered on Netflix, just like the John Cena and Idris Elba vehicle Heads of State premiered on Prime Video. Unfortunately, major comedy stars have flocked to the streaming services and left movie theaters without successful comedies for quite some time. To reignite the spark that would keep comedy movies thriving on the big screen, we now have a reboot or legacy sequel of The Naked Gun, the Leslie Nielsen vehicle from the 80s and 90s, filled with spoof film humor, some of which has become quite iconic. For the legacy sequel, the studio turned to the Lonely Island member Akiva Schaffer, director of Popstar: Never Stop, Never Stopping, as well as producer Seth MacFarlane, with the hopes of finally releasing a good spoof comedy film in the theaters again. Thankfully, with screen legends leading the picture, the reboot of The Naked Gun is a success. It is, undoubtedly, one of the funniest films I’ve seen this year, and I hope it’s the beginning of a new trend where comedy films can once again thrive in theaters.

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REVIEW: Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

(L-R): Dale (voiced by Andy Samberg) and Chip (voiced by John Mulaney) in Disney’s live-action CHIP ‘N DALE: RESCUE RANGERS, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Directed by Akiva Schaffer – Screenplay by Dan Gregor & Doug Mand.

From the director of the hilarious pop-mockumentary Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a Who Framed Roger Rabbit?-style live-action and animation blended film wherein the animated characters Chip and Dale (voiced by John Mulaney and Andy Samberg, respectively) are actors who starred in their very own television show — i.e. the real-life television show of the same name — but who, thirty years later, have gone their separate ways and lost touch. When their old co-star Monterey Jack (voiced by Eric Bana), who has a ‘stinky cheese addiction,’ is kidnapped by the so-called Valley Gang, Chip and Dale must work together to find and save Monterey Jack before he is forced to be a part of the Valley Gang’s bootlegging business.

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