The Josh Innes Show - New "Naked Gun" Movie

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

I watched the trailer for the new "Naked Gun" movie starring Liam Neeson and I'm in. You know why the trailer works?? It's brief. Which movie reboots work and which don't? Why? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, I just watched the trailer for the new Naked Gun starring Liam Neeson. Seth MacFarlane is associated with this. And the guys that did 22 Jump Street, I think, are associated with it. 21 and 22 Jump Street. Which, by the way, as far as movies that are made of old TV shows, which was a big boom at one point. Now you're not seeing it as much, but there was a huge boom where old TV show gets its movie version and it's kind of a self-aware, wacky movie, which you kind of have to be, obviously. If you're making a 21 Jump Street, you have to be very self-aware

when you're doing it because the source material was very not self-aware. So you have to be self-aware and understand that you're doing something kind of goofy kind of dumb but like there's a fine line there's a fine line in being too self-deprecating to where you can't take the movie serious if that makes sense like you if every single thing about the movie is hey they know i'm in a movie and i know i'm in a movie then i lose interest in it right so I need you to have a couple of winks you know it's kind of goofy you know some of the shit that's happening is completely unrealistic because it's in a movie and then you kind of just continue with an actual movie if you don't take yourself seriously enough how can I that happens a lot

with horror movies because a lot of horror movies now you start to see a lot of these movies where like like it's just constantly I think you would call it meta you know meta like like the original scream was kind of one of the og movies in this era of meta horror movies that are kind of self-aware and they kind of give a wink and a nod to the fact that they're in a horror movie Wes Cravenven's New Nightmare, both of those are Wes Craven movies. Wes Craven's New Nightmare was a meta horror movie where the characters in it kind of like, it was a movie about making movies and it was, and I like Wes Craven's New Nightmare. I don't think it's as great as a lot of people make it out to be. I think Scream is a much better meta horror movie than Wes Craven's New Nightmare.

But when I start to think about the meta aspect of it, I think Scream is a very good example of that. Like the people in the movie talk about how absurd movie tropes are. But at the end of it, it's still a movie and you're in the movie world. And they don't basically tell you that this is all fake and all bullshit right where a lot of movies will do that now and I'm trying to think of examples if anybody has any you can send some to me and I'm sure I've talked about them on the show before but once you kind of acknowledge constantly that you're in a movie and you kind of give too many looks to the to the to the audience and there's the breaking of the fourth wall. Once you do that enough, I'm kind of like, eh, you don't believe the movie.

It's like wrestling in that way. If you make too many references to the fact that it's wrestling and you don't keep kayfabe up at least a little, I'm like, okay, if you don't take it seriously, I don't take it seriously. And I think there is a fine line between taking yourself way too seriously in a movie or being too lax on how serious you take the material right so like a movie like 21 Jump Street I thought 21

Jump Street was spectacular you know there's there's references to 21 Jump Street the tv show but I think just the acting was good the comedy was good it was actual likable Jonah Hill. It was before Jonah Hill became one of the most pretentious, unlikable cock bags you're ever going to see in film. But if you watch early Jonah Hill, even if you kind of predate those and go to the brief scene that Jonah Hill was in, the 40-year-old virgin, where he wanted to buy the boots that have the fish in the sole of the boot or in the heel of the boot, or if you go to a movie called Accepted, which is an underrated little gem of a movie with Jonah Hill and Blake Lively is in this movie, and Louis Black is in this movie, and the one dude from Dodgeball, I'm drawing a blank on his name, but he was the lead in the movie, and it's where they start their own college. I thought that was a pretty good movie too, and Jonah Hill was good in that movie uh Jonah Hill I would do I was watching um Wolf of Wall Street strangely enough Wolf of Wall Street is one of those movies that I like to

just turn on to fall asleep because it's three hours and you just flip it on and you can doze off Jonah Hill's great in that Jonah Hill is great and super bad which to me is one of the funniest movies that has ever existed when we talk about funny movies, one of my all-time faves, top five comedy movies all time is Superbad. I fucking love it. And then somewhere along the way, Jonah Hill became a legit actor. And Jonah Hill became very hard to deal with and take seriously. He became a pretentious actor guy that you just can't take serious. He's got documentaries on Netflix about his fucking shrink.

And I'm like, I'm not here for this. Like Jonah Hill shit. So if I see Jonah Hill is going to be in something, Seth Rogen is like this too. Jonah Hill or Seth Rogen. When I see something starring them, I'm like, this is probably going to be pretentious pap and I don't really want to see it. Now let me play a couple of commercials. We'll continue. All right. If you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out pick six from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings pick six posterizes the competition, including prize picks. It's a very simple concept. Hit all your picks and score higher minimum payouts on pick six plus even more cash if you outscore the competition pick six is available in most states including Missouri California Texas

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was in 40 year old virgin of course knocked up uh the neighbor's movie the first one was pretty good the second one was blah but like the dude made some fucking gems man and so did Jonah Hill now if I see they're in something I'm almost immediately assuming I don't want to watch it. This is a couple of years ago now, but I went to see the movie with Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen, where he's like her old buddy from school or whatever. And I'm like, didn't do anything. That said, I did start watching the studio on Apple TV. There's very little that is on Apple TV that warrants paying for Apple TV, right? Like people talk about this Severin show.

I haven't watched it. I really don't like Adam Scott. There's something about him that bothers me. I enjoy him in Parks and Rec only because in Parks and Rec, he plays the perfect Adam Scott character. But for the most part, there's something about Adam Scott that I just don't like so I haven't watched Severance I've heard great things

and of course this Ted Lasso which is getting another season I don't get it I tried uh you know Jilly is someone who doesn't really care to watch shows with people who have accents for whatever reason uh I don't know why but she just doesn't so we tried to watch it I don't like it I don't know why, but she just doesn't. So we tried to watch it. I don't like it. I don't like, I think, and I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why I think I don't like Ted Lasso.

And it's for an obvious me reason that when you hear it, you'll go, yeah, that tracks. I think because everybody likes it so much and allegedly the message is so positive. I just hate it on the surface i just don't like it so i watched an episode i'm like i don't get it jason sudekis used to do shit that i thought was great too we're the millers is a great little movie i just i don't care about that

but the studio which has new episodes that come out on Wednesdays I believe the studio uh when I first saw the trailer showed it to Jilly and she's like we're not gonna like this because it's Seth Rogen and we're a little iffy on Seth Rogen now he's a very self-important tool bag I was like I know but like more so than Jonah Hill Seth Rogen when I see him in something I still think of like funny Seth Rogen shit and I can't ignore the fact that Superbad's one of my favorite comedies of all time. I find Seth Rogen in movies to be the likable doofus stoner guy, and I enjoy him. Politics aside of him being a lunatic like many of these people who just throw out dumb shit about politics on the internet all the time,

I like him, and I like the concept of the show I like shows that are set in Hollywood and shit like that so like I'll give it a try pretty funny show it's not bad uh he's very good in it it's it's a good show so uh Jillian I watched the first three episodes of it it's pretty good another show that I watched on Apple TV which was good was the um the one with Vince Vaughn I forgot what the hell it was called something to do a monkey I think and it was a pretty good show too but it's just weird you go to Apple TV and you see the shows that are on there and you see the trailers for the movies and shit and it's like this is just far too pretentious and trying hard.

I have no interest. But the Vince Vaughn show was pretty good. But anyway, back to the initial point of this conversation. I watched the trailer for the new Naked Gun movie. It's a little teaser. Movie comes out in August, so we're still four months from when this movie comes out. It's got Liam Neeson.

He's playing Frank Drebin's son. Here's something that I think is important when you are rebooting something. It's one thing to take a TV show and then turn it into a movie, like when they did Get Smart, or just go down the whole list of shit that was a TV show in the 60s or the 70s. Shaft. Not Shaft. That was a remake of a movie uh but like the mod squad or whatever right take whatever movie you want from a tv show of a previous time that's different because you don't necessarily have to be loyal to the source material right like the 21 jump street movie doesn't have to include johnny depp and johnny de's character, although they do a nice job of

including them in a cameo in the movie, which is good, but it's not like, oh, I'm the son of Johnny Depp's character. You don't have to do that because you're just recreating a TV show. If you're looking to reboot a previously successful series or a dormant series, which is the Naked Gun series. I think Naked Gun 33 and a third came out in 93 or 94. So it's been over 30 years. Leslie Nielsen is dead, so you're not going to include him. George, what's his name, is dead. The guy that played his bud. And then, of course, OJ slash you know was in jail and is oj so but it's been over 30 years uh since then so to me when you're doing this i think it's important

just to give that little bit of acknowledgement to the previous part of the series that makes it feel like a continuation and not just like this thing that's been dropped down on you like that's why i didn't like twisters i thought twisters was basically just Twister, but with two fucking tornadoes, right? Like, I just, I didn't, like, I wanted more because I'm a big fan of Twister and Helen fucking Hunt and Bill Paxton, even though he's dead. Like, I wanted, like, if you just would have made the girl like the great granddaughter or the granddaughter of Helen Hunt I'd be like I'm into this movie otherwise you just made a fucking remake it wasn't a reboot it was essentially a remake with a slightly different uh you know the storyline but that's all the shit was

like if you're going to give me a reboot of a movie and you're going to like go back and you're calling it twisters you got the same fucking graphics on the logo and everything you're trying to get me to watch it because it's got an association to twister which is a great fucking movie i need some sort of allusion to what happened in twister and the only thing we get is we get this dorothy we get like one of the dorothys why do you have these those were fucking hel Hunt and Bill Paxton's fucking things how do you have one and that pissed me off so just off the jump I didn't like twisters because of the fact it didn't have any reference to the original twister in this trailer and I think this was important and this is a very smart move it's a little teaser trailer comedy is whatever it's wacky humor it's Liam Neeson he's Lieutenant Frank Drebin of Police

Squad the entire trailer which is like 40 seconds is you know wacky type of scene involving Frank Drebin you see him say his name and then I think this is important because Naked Gun does have a loyal group of people people fucking love Leslie Nielsen. And what made that so good, particularly early in Police Squad, like the TV show Police Squad, and then the Naked Gun movies, is you play the character straight. And that's why Liam Neeson works in this, because Liam Neeson doesn't know he's a dipshit. And that's the key. Frank Drebin, Leslie Nielsen, didn't know he was a dipshit. Didn't know he was like a Mr. Magoo of police officers. He played it straight. And that's what Leslie Nielsen did in Airplane that was so well.

You have to play it straight. And he did a great job with that. But the trailer, what it does that's important, and it establishes this. Because really, and this is why I think this is a good thing. And I'm sure a longer trailer will come out that will spoil a lot of the good shit about the movie like all trailers do now but i thought what was important in this trailer is all it did was establish that it's a naked gun movie because you know he's frank drebin and then the last 10 seconds of it or you see like he's talking to a photo of leslie nielsen and he goes dad or whatever i'm hoping i'm making you

proud so we established that that is the son of Lieutenant Frank Drebin of police squad. Right. And then the next guy is talking to a picture of George. What's his fucking name? I can't believe I'm drawing a blank on his name from Poseidon Adventure. But him. All right. So he's talking to it and he's like, hey, that's my dad, whatever.

And then there's a black guy that's talking to the OJ picture and he's like hey that's my dad whatever and then there's a black guy that's talking to the oj picture and he's like yeah never mind and that establishes that these are characters who are the offspring of the previous characters it seems like a small thing but it is important to not go into this movie thinking, okay, they're just recreating Naked Gun. It is a continuation of the story, and that is important. See that, Twisters? I will never watch the movie Twisters again. There is no replayability for me, a rewindability.

If I'm sitting on the couch one day and fucking Twisters is on, I'm like, yeah, the fuck, I'm not watching this. If Twister is on, I'll watch it, but you didn't reward me with this reboot. the one thing like they make these scream movies constantly now and they're not very good but at least like all of them have some sort of lineage to uh sydney prescott or in people that were in the earlier Scream movies because otherwise they're just standalone shit. I need it linked back to that.

And I think that's what we're going to get in this Naked Gun. And Liam Neeson's great anyway, and he's going to play it super serious, which you have to play it super serious if you're playing Frank Drebin. I think this is going to be good. And the trailer was perfect. Now, to me, they should never put out a new trailer. For the next four months, just play that trailer. Because I have no clue what any of the gags in the movie are.

The problem you're going to run into with a lot of these damn movies is they tell you every gag in the trailer now. Like, I've talked about this on here. But we went to see the movie with Keiki Palmer that was like Gal Friday, right? And basically the same sort of concept as Friday, except it was a giant steaming pile of shit. Although I will say this. I was on a flight a couple weeks ago, and I just watched Friday and Next Friday. Those are also really shitty fucking movies. We look back on them with such reverence

because we watch them at a younger age when you really watch Friday it's like most Ice Cube movies really shittily made and terrible not to say that Ice Cube hasn't made good movies like I think Barbershop was good the Barbershop movies are pretty good it's not like he's made all bad shit but Friday was really a piece of shit movie it's got funny memorable lines to a degree but as a movie it's just kind of like all right this is a piece of shit uh and even for like a stoner type movie it was a piece of shit and then I watched next Friday and I'm like this is an even bigger piece of shit right but the one of them days is what the movie is called and i think it's now on either amazon or netflix one of them and we watched this and i i came out of it going well that's every gag in the trailer was in there don't ruin this naked gun movie by making other trailers like

i don't know like if you want to see naked gun if you're someone who grew up watching naked gun and naked gun two and a half and naked gun 33 and a third and all that shit if you grew up with that you will be into this because of the fact that it is Leslie Neal it's Liam Neeson it's him playing the son of Frank Drebin it's Naked Gun I don't need any more I don't need it please do not do it get I want to go to the cinema and be fucking surprised i told you the worst i'd ever seen for that was this movie called um good boys which was supposed to be like the tween super bad literally every fucking gag was in the trailer like how does someone who like seth rogan i think was a producer on that movie how does seth rogan watch the trailer for that movie and go yeah let's put that one out there.

Let's tell the whole fucking movie. Like, I was watching a trailer for, I think it's a Blumhouse movie where the girl is out on a date or the woman's out on a date and someone's broken into her house, but she can't tell the date that there's someone broken into her house. I forgot what it's called. It looks kind of cool, right? But then, like, there'll be little tiny clips of the movie that you see and you're like well i know that this is inevitably

going to happen like there's a scene where she's like blown out of the window of this restaurant that like great so now we know that there's a point in the movie where she might end up falling out of this fucking window like leave something up to surprise you sons of bitches we went to see um this uh unicorn movie death of a unicorn the other day which for about three quarters of it wasn't bad but then the end of it and i won't spoil it for you like it's it's i mean the concept of it was kind of cool it was one of those movies that's got like hidden message thing like an an animal cruelty type message. But it's like, guys, it's fucking unicorns. And I'm not going to tell you the ending of it. But there's a movie, a made for TV movie about the Loch Ness Monster starring Ted Danson.

And when I was a kid, I was really into the Loch Ness Monster. And I saw the promo for this on TV. It's like Ted Danson. I think the movie was just called Loch Ness, I think. Look it up on TV it's like Ted Dance and I think the movie was just called Loch Ness I think look it up and it's Loch Ness and I'm like I can't wait to watch this shit we're gonna find out about Nessie and the movie ends I shit you not after like two hours of like drama and the Loch Ness monster and is he real the movie literally ends with the Loch Ness monster. And is he real? The movie literally ends with the Loch Ness monster swimming away with like his wife, Loch Ness monster and his children,

Loch Ness monsters. And the song that is playing at the end of this is the rhythm of my heart by Rod Stewart. So after all of this drama, after the promos got us like, Oh my God, what the fuck is this? Loch Ness monster going to eat someone's fucking head off. What you end up with is a family of Loch Ness Monster going to eat someone's fucking head off? What you end up with is a family of Loch Ness Monsters swimming away

and the rhythm of my heart is beating like a drum with the words I love you rolling on my tongue. I'm like, what the fuck are we doing here? And I'm not going to say that that's how that other movie ends, but you're invested for like an hour and 40 minutes in these creepy fucking really, honest to God, poorly CGI'd fucking unicorns. Like, I thought the point of CGI was to be like, hey, you can't tell that it's a fucking CGI unicorn.

Kind of shitty CGI. And this movie that ends with this like anti-animal cruelty message. Like, guys, I wasn't going to fuck with the unicorn. Whatever. If you want to go see't going to fuck with the unicorn. Whatever. If you want to go see the movie, go see the movie. There's a lot of bad shit that's out right now anyway. So it could be worth watching. But yeah, that was the movie we saw this week.

It wasn't great. But it was $6 movie day. So it ruled. All right. We have more to come.