The `Naked Gun' Truth: -- It's A Barrage Of Comedy, But It's Starting To Misfire

Movie review

XX 1/2"Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult," with Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson, Fred Ward, Anna Nicole Smith. Directed by Peter Segal, from a screenplay by Pat Proft, David Zucker and Robert LoCash. Alderwood, Crossroads, Everett Mall, Factoria, Gateway, Kent, Kirkland Parkplace, Oak Tree, Parkway Plaza, Uptown, Valley Drive-in. "PG-13" - Parental guidance strongly suggested because of mature humor. -----------------------------------------------------------------

We can all consider ourselves lucky if next week's Academy Awards broadcast is anywhere near as entertaining as the Oscar ceremony that serves as a rousing climax to "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult." Featuring a tacky feast of dubious celebrities and such questionable winners as former Olympic champion gymnast Mary Lou Retton (who somersaults her way to the podium for her Best Actress award), this is the way the real Oscar show should always be - absurd on purpose as opposed to unintentionally.

You also get a nifty song and dance from Pia Zadora - my candidate for future Oscar-cast hostess - and a Best Picture nominee that qualifies as a shameless stroke of comic genius: Sir Richard Attenborough's musical film biography of Mother Teresa, in which the saint of Calcutta prances around a band of skinny children with loaves of bread, singing "Food! Food! Wonderful Food!"

Posing as Phil Donahue and botching his award presentation with Raquel Welch, the bumbling police detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) has crashed the Oscars to foil a psychotic terrorist named Rocco (Fred Ward) who has placed a high-tech bomb in the Best Picture award envelope. Also working the case are Drebin's fellow lawmen Hocken (George Kennedy) and Nordberg (O.J. Simpson), and also his lovely wife, Jane (Priscilla Presley), who wishes Frank would return to the fuzzy-slippered domesticity of his short-lived retirement.

I haven't quite figured out the plot significance of Rocco's wife and accomplice, played by Anna Nicole Smith, the full-figured Guess? jeans model and Playboy's 1993 Playmate of the Year, whose generous endowments (as one pithy columnist recently quipped, "Just one of her breasts could solve the famine in Somalia") offer ample proof that the world will always make room for the latest reincarnation of Jayne Mansfield. Suffice it to say her acting skills are not a high priority, though Smith deserves credit for good sportsmanship and a gravity-defying wardrobe.

Hilarious rip-off

Like its predecessors, the third "Naked Gun" installment also starts with a bang, hilariously ripping off the train station shootout from "The Untouchables," but it's all downhill from there, even though the zingers keep coming at lightning pace thanks to Nielsen and capable first-time director Peter Segal.

The veteran team of "Naked Gun" creators defy the odds by continuing to dream up hundreds of gags, and with the news headlines as their inspiration, their instantly disposable brand of humor is remarkably up-to-the-minute. There's even the inevitable Tonya Harding joke, proving that these guys aren't exactly sleeping on the job.

Still, the steam has run out on this formula, just as we can't expect the "Ace Ventura" sequels to match the phenomenal success of the current "Pet Detective" hit. You know what you're in for, and you get what you want (especially those die-hards who read ALL of the end credits), but you'll also get the feeling that you've seen it all before.