Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult

The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) is the third and last film in the series. Frank Drebin has retired, is bored at home, and agrees to infiltrate a prison to catch a bomber. It carries on the Zucker method: a separate joke in the background of every frame, wordplay, and absurdity played entirely straight. The structure comes from television. The source is Police Squad!, which aired in 1982 and was cancelled after six episodes. The strangest thing about it now is in the cast. O. J. Simpson played Nordberg across all three films. This one opened in March 1994, months before Simpson was charged with two murders. For years afterwards it was awkward to show on television. Peter Segal directed, after David Zucker had made the first two. Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley and George Kennedy all returned. It runs 83 minutes. Good for: parody, a high rate of jokes per minute, and Leslie Nielsen. Less good for: the series is tiring here and the gags repeat the first two films. The sexual humour has aged badly. Beyond the Academy Awards sequence, little of it stays with you.