#dan gregor

These two gumshoes are pickin' up the slack, celebrate #DisneyTVA40 with the "Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers" cards for Disney Lorcana: Azurite Sea.

The Naked Gun (2025)

Directed by Akiva Schaffer

The Naked Gun 2025 Movie Teaser Trailer

Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. is following in his father's footsteps.

The Naked Gun stars Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, Cody Rhodes, Liza Koshy, Eddie Yu, and Danny Huston. The film is directed by Akiva Schaffer from a screenplay by Dan Gregor & Doug Mand and Schaffer.

When it comes to Dr. Dolittle, I’ve done my movie homework. I’ve seen all 7 films, from the dull 1967 musical to the direct-to-DVD sequels to the Eddie Murphy comedy. I’ve concluded that it’s impossible to make a good “Dr. Dolittle” movie. This 2020 revival obviously spent tons of money on effects and it amounts to nothing. Even little kids will leave unsatisfied thanks to its jumbled story.

Dr. John Dolittle (Robert Downey Jr.) is a veterinarian who can speak to and understand animals. When Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley) falls deathly ill, only he can find the cure for the poison she’s been given by Lord Thomas Badly (Jim Broadbent). After reluctantly accepting to take young Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett) as an apprentice, Dolittle and his animal friends set sail to find the “Fruit of Eden”.

The picture believes that as long as someone is talking, the audience will be laughing so it bombards you with a dozen unnecessary "funny" characters. Emma Thompson voices Polynesia, Dolittle’s macaw friend. She’s the sensible bridge between worlds so you could keep her. Rami Malek as the anxious gorilla, John Cena as a perpetually chilly polar bear, Kumail Nanjiani as an ostrich, Octavia Spencer as a one-legged duck, Tom Holland as a dog with glasses, Selena Gomez as a giraffe, and Marion Cotillard as a fox could’ve all been combined into just a few animals or omitted entirely. The worst of the bunch are Jason Mantzoukas as a dimwitted, wisecracking dragonfly and Craig Robinson as a paranoid squirrel. The jokes in this movie all sink to the bottom of the ocean but those two take it to another depth of anti-funniness.

The dialogue is terrible and the physical gags are made to match. Little kids won't know better and will probably laugh but adults will be embarrassed to watch Robert Downey Jr. in a bad wig wildly gesticulating. You think you’ve gotten acclimated to how terrible this is? Just wait until the movie pulls out a reference to “The Godfather” or brings on the bowel and testicle jokes. I’d tell you about the picture's worst scene but you wouldn’t believe me.

Not helping is the needlessly complicated, Swiss cheese-like plot. On the day Queen Victoria sends Lady Rose (Carmel Laniado) to find Dolittle (why'd she send a little girl on such an important mission?), Tommy finds a way into his wildlife sanctuary. Once they embark on the adventure, Rose is left behind and doesn’t do anything for the rest of the film. Why was she included at all?

Dolittle can’t get its narration right and can’t even manage to correctly do a mid-credit gag. Not only is it spoiled by the end credits (which didn’t even look all that good if you ask me) but it follows-up on a character that no one was wondering about. They had the money, they had the star power and it all went to waste. (Theatrical version on the big screen, January 30, 2020)