The Naked Gun: Do Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson live up to the original?

With big screen comedies an increasing rarity, and the internet having taken over the day-to-day duties of satisrising pop culture, it's kind of remarkable that there is a new version of cop cliché spoof The Naked Gun being mounted at all.

If nothing else, experiencing this in a packed theatre is a hearty reminder that a packed theater is the natural environment for comedy, and that there should be more opportunities for us to enjoy mirth together as a species. We are pack animals, and that is rarely more apparent than when watching a splendidly silly comedy on the big screen.

For the unititiated, the original The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) was a successful big screen adapation of a not-very-succesful TV show called Police Squad (1982), which was made by the people who brought us genre-defining spoofs like Airplane! and Top Secret!

The Naked Gun ended up being their most enduring property, generating two sequels and turning lead actor Leslie Nielsen into a go-to star for spoof movies. And Nielsen's straight-faced performance was key to their success, just as Liam Neeson's steely po-facedness in the new film is the best thing about it.

They've been threatening to make a new Naked Gun for years now, and throughout its development, comedy stars like Ed Helms (The Hangover) were bandied around as potential leads. Which entirely misses the point.

Prior to appearing as the concerned doctor in Airplane! - a supporting performance that led directly into Police Squad and then Naked Gun - Nielsen was known as a dramatic performer in movies like The Poseiden Adventure and Forbidden Planet. The seriousness with which he played Lt. Frank Drebin elevated the satire and sold the whole enterprise.

Neeson, whose last fifteen years have constituted an amusing late career turn into a grizzled action star, is perfectly positioned to fulfill a similar function in the new film, where he plays Frank Drebin, Jr. His gritty stare and gruff delivery authenticate the cop tropes being made fun of, and both stand in delightful contrast to the extremely silliness occuring around him.

The story tends to be secondary in these sorts of movies, but this does have one, and it centres around a plot device called the P.L.O.T. Device. If that tickles you, then you're well-positioned to having a good time at this movie.

The three original Naked Gun films did a great job of sending up several decades worth of widely prevalent clichés, but there are many modern action movie conventions for this to delve into, with some notable targets being handsy martial arts scenes, coffee-guzzling cops and even Mission: Impossible-style gambits.

Pamela Anderson has fun chemistry opposite Neeson as the film's femme fatale (keep your eyes peeled for a cameo from the original's leading lady), and perhaps gets the biggest laugh of the film when she is forced to sing in the “scat” style on stage to distract the bad guys.

Underrated actor Danny Huston (Yellowstone, Wonder Woman) is well-cast as the main antagonist, and does a great job of never once acknowledging the ridiculousness around him. He keeps an even straighter face than Neeson.

Character actor Paul Walter Hauser doesn't quite live up to the great George Kennedy as (the son of) Frank's partner Ed, but he remains an appealing presence.

My rule for big screen comedies is that if I laugh out loud more than three times, then the film has done its job. This easily satisfied that threshold several times over.

But having grown up on the original, I couldn't help but be conscious that the density of jokes that bouyed the original isn't quite matched by this new take, as valiant as its intentions are.

But the 1988 film constitutes a ridiculously high standard that its impossible to imagine any film living up to. So while this may fall slightly short of that high watermark, it remains a fun comedy very much worth seeing. In a packed theatre.