From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv
David Zucker Just Got Surprising Ammunition For His War On The New
'Naked Gun' Movie
According to prominent members of the entertainment media, The Naked
Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is the best comedy film of all
time. We have an idea of what David Zucker might pick for the worst one.
The parody film-making legend Zucker recently trashed the fourth Naked
Gun film starring Liam Neeson for supposedly ripping off his comedy
style while falling victim to the money-grabbing, style-over-substance approach to filmmaking that took over Hollywood around the time when Zucker’s career slowed down.
Zucker’s main points in his criticism seemed to suggest that he never actually watched The Naked Gun (2025), but, nevertheless, Zucker felt so insulted by the new filmmakers’ decision not to use his script for the
film – or involve him in its making at all – that he launched a media campaign decrying the sequel before ever laying eyes on it.
“The glory of The Naked Gun is that it’s a shamelessly uninhibited, anarchically observational drive-by comedy that will make fun of
anything: global autocrats, stodgy film noir dialogue, safe sex, a professional baseball game, food left in the refrigerator for too long,” Variety wrote of their top pick in the expansive list of the greatest
comedy movies ever.
Said the outlet of the film's makers, “ZAZ first got famous for
Airplane! (1980), but here, in their genius mélange of deconstructed
movie clichés and mad puns, not to mention the mother of all satirical
love montages (set to Herman’s Hermits’ ‘Something Good’), they launched
the media-wise parody as big-screen comedy art form of its time,
creating a kind of modernistic Marx Brothers movie that tickles us with
a spirit so funny it’s timeless.”
https://www.cracked.com/article_49280_david-zucker-just-got-surprising-ammunition-for-his-war-on-the-new-naked-gun.html
‘Naked Gun’ Reboot ‘Totally Missed It,’ Says Original Director
David Zucker is still mad about the Naked Gun reboot.
Zucker and collaborator Pat Proft had their own script ready to go for
Naked Gun 4, a screenplay he claims Paramount rejected because of a
sexist gag about breast reduction.
(The original Naked Gun movies are full of off-color bits — if one joke
was really the problem, wouldn’t Paramount just ask for a new punchline?) That narrative plays into a gripe Zucker shared with Fox News earlier
this year, complaining that “PC (culture) has ruined comedy to a large extent.” In other words, stepping away from tired boob jokes is why “there’s no good comedy.”
Zucker grumbles to anyone who’ll listen that he was shut out of Akiva Schaffer’s remix. “They have not contacted me to make a cameo or be involved in the writing,” Zucker said, according to the Guardian.
“Whether or not they’re going to do a good job with it, this kind of spoof, I mean it’s not rocket science, but it’s not easy.”
Since then, Zucker has been all over the place, ping-ponging his
opinions about a Naked Gun that he wasn’t part of. During the summer,
for example, he proclaimed that he was boycotting the sequel and refused to see it.
Then, when the box office was decent and the reviews were enthusiastic,
he went public with his support. “People are liking it, which is great,” Zucker told Hollywood Reporter. “I really like the director, and I just couldn’t wish him more well.”
https://www.cracked.com/article_49150_naked-gun-reboot-totally-missed-it-says-original-director.html
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