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Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson attend the premiere of The Naked Gun. Alamy Stock Photo
police squad
‘Roll on the floor hilarious’: Liam Neeson a ‘delight’ as critics rave over new Naked Gun film
The Naked Gun reboot will be released in Irish cinemas this Friday.
LAST UPDATE | 30 Jul 2025
CRITICS HAVE BEEN full of praise for the new Naked Gun movie starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, with one calling it “fall-out-of-your-seat-and-roll-on-the-floor hilarious”.
The Naked Gun reboot will be released in Irish cinemas this Friday and it’s garnered near universal-acclaim among reviewers.
It’s the fourth film in the Naked Gun franchise and sees Neeson cast as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., who must succeed in his father’s footsteps to prevent the closure of Police Squad.
The movie is produced by Seth MacFarlane, the producer of Family Guy.
New York Magazine describes the film as “fall-out-of-your-seat-and-roll-on-the-floor hilarious” and adds: “See it with the biggest audience you can find. It might just heal you. It might just heal the world.”
It’s a sentiment shared by the Daily Telegraph, which likewise urges people to see it with an audience in its four star review: “Experience the rare and wonderful pleasure of a crowd scrambling to keep up with one of the stupidest films it’s ever seen.”
Variety magazine meanwhile said the film “practically had audiences wetting their pants” and the San Francisco Chronicle remarked that “Neeson is a delight and seems to be having as much fun as the audience”.
Elsewhere, entertainment news site TheWrap said that one thing is for sure and it’s that the new Naked Gun is funny: “It’s very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very funny. Very.”
In a four star review, The Guardian said that Neeson “deadpans impeccably in outrageously amusing” film.
Consequence praises the film as “an almost non-stop onslaught of silly and random moments” and The Daily Beast describes it as “a big, brash, laugh-out-loud crime spoof led by a great Liam Neeson performance”.
And while The Hollywood Reporter felt that the movie “kind of stalls midway”, it adds that there are “enough laugh-out-loud moments to keep nostalgic fans of the earlier films happy”.
Meanwhile, there have been rumours that Neeson and Anderson are in a relationship after co-starring in the film.
The pair were asked about this during an appearance on NBC’s Today show yesterday.
“What’s the deal here?” asked host Craig Melvin.
“You’re both single right now. There’s clearly chemistry on display throughout this film. Are you two an item?”
Neeson replied that he and Anderson met on set and “discovered we had a lovely, budding chemistry — as two actors”.
He added: “It’s like, ‘Oh, this is nice. Let’s not mould this. Let’s just let it breathe.’ And that’s what we did.”
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