I know there are a lot of people who don’t think we needed a new Naked Gun, that it’s impossible to fill the comedy shoes of Leslie Nielsen. Leslie is a legend, no doubt, but am I allowed to be excited about the movie that’s coming out in August starring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin’s son? It’s great casting, non? Plus, I’m the basic bitch that laughed at the teaser that was released a couple of months ago and I laughed watching the new trailer that dropped this morning. It was the “man’s laughter” joke that got me. And also the bit with the chair.
Let’s talk more about the bit with the chair because it’s Pamela Anderson who really f-cking sells it. This is comedy Pam, and I love it for her because she has been waiting a long time to showcase her range – and she does have range. We saw her in her drama lane earlier this year in The Last Showgirl and now she gets to be silly and stupid in a silly, stupid comedy that is clearly sending up her bombshell image. Plus it looks like she might get to sing in the movie too.
Pam is also featured on the movie poster that they revealed yesterday ahead of the trailer drop. As we have seen over the last few years, since she decided to reemerge as a public figure with a whole new makeunder, Pam’s been resistant to revisiting the sexpot looks of her past. So it’s actually rare now to see her all conventionally glammed up like this.
The difference here, though, is that it’s meant for laughs and not objectification. She’s in on the comedy, and she’s making it the comedy, she gets to take something that was so complicated and uncontrollable for her 25 years ago and turn it into something that amuses her first and foremost. And in that sense, there might actually be some common DNA between her performance in The Naked Gun and The Last Showgirl.
