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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"She was the kind of woman who made you want to drop to your knees and thank God you were a man!", 6 May 2006
Watching this 1991 sequel to Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad, is like opening a time capsule. A slapstick comedy/satire set in Washington, DC, during the Presidency of George H. W. Bush, the plot involves the kidnapping of Dr. Albert Meinheimer (Richard Griffiths), the President's energy czar, who wants to reduce the country's pollution and its dependence on coal, oil, and nuclear power. Working as the Public Relations Director of the Meinheimer Institute, is Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley), to whom Police Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) was once engaged (until he was found in a compromising situation with the Queen in Naked Gun I). Jane is now the lover of Quentin Hapsburg (Robert Goulet), who has planned the Meinheimer kidnapping.
Filled with sight gags, one-liners, parodies of other films, stock comedy routines, jokes hidden within the sets (a portrait of Mike Dukakis on the wall, for example), and non-stop action that runs amok, the plot is the least of director David Zucker's concerns. Lt. Drebin (Nielsen), his romance with Jane, and his constant missteps as an investigator serve as the primary focus. Goulet acts the suitably oily villain, and actors George Kennedy and O. J. Simpson, who work with Drebin, are as bumbling as he is.
In the opening scene, a Presidential reception hosted to honor Drebin by President George H. W. Bush (played by John Roarke, who is hilariously realistic), Drebin decks Barbara Bush several times (with Margery Ross, who plays the First Lady as a valiant trouper, always coming up smiling). The setting quickly changes to a strip joint, a bowling alley, and operating room, and eventually includes a bomb site, a blues bar, and a dance-reception before the chases start. Nelson and Winnie Mandela, John Sununu, and Davy Crockett have roles here, and ZsaZsa Gabor and Mel Torme appear in cameos.
The action is wild and wacky, and the gags (both verbal and visual) never cease. Love scenes add romance--or attempts at romance, since those, especially a seduction in which the two people are making a vase from wet clay in an art studio when the wheel goes out of control--are as off-the-wall as the rest of the film. Especially time-sensitive regarding O. J. Simpson, who dominates his scenes ironically in ways that he never did in 1991, when the film was made, Naked Gun 2 1/2 is a hilarious but poignant comedy--the energy problems of 1991 are, unfortunately, not all that different now. Mary Whipple
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