: (Lorne Balfe) After many years of
unsuccessful attempts to develop a fourth film in the franchise of "The
Naked Gun," including one last 2009 effort while original actor Leslie
Nielsen was still alive, the long-awaited continuation finally debuted
in 2025 with a mostly new cast. Born from the short-lived 1982
television show, "Police Squad!," the 1988 movie
as a cinematic
calling card for Nielsen, and it spawned two 1990's sequels and gained
an immensely loyal following for its brazenly stupid humor. While
masquerading as a detective concept, these films are essentially one
long series of really bad jokes, an intentionally terrible parody of the
crime action genre. Taking the lead in 2025's
is
the son of Nielsen's character, Frank Drebin Jr., who is exactly the
same kind of ridiculous and lucky Los Angeles police detective as his
father. The casting of Liam Neeson as this character is as inspired as
that of Pamela Anderson as the lead love interest and co-investigator.
(Promotion of the movie was aided by reports of a love affair between
the two actors.) The plot of this film literally involves a P.L.O.T.
("Primordial Law of Toughness") device that can turn the public back
towards their barbarian inclinations, and Drebin Jr. and Anderson's Beth
Davenport must thwart the usual villain who intends to unleash it on New
Year's Eve in New York for kicks and giggles. Though received fairly
well,
didn't shoot its way to the level of fiscal
success that was hoped amongst more serious later summer competition.
The project was, during much of 2025, anticipated by film music
enthusiasts as an opportunity for veteran composer Joel McNeely to
return to mainstream cinemas for the first time in ten years, and he had
a knack for the exact kind of genre-bending music that Ira Newborn had
brought to the original trilogy of films with much success. Despite
McNeely's long-running partnership with the filmmakers, he was replaced
very late in the production process by fixer Lorne Balfe, a turn of
events that greatly disappointed many in the film score community.
Balfe and his ever-ready crew, several of whom
contributing to cues here, were certainly capable of cranking out a
brief replacement score on short notice, but this circumstance has
happened all-too-often with Balfe, who finds himself cleaning up and
catering to last-minute studio expectations at the expense of respected
colleagues frequently. The composer had engaged in some of the same kind
of parody work just prior with better results in
Argylle, and he
provides the lesser, bare bones basics needed for
The Naked Gun
to modernize the subject. The most obvious course correction with his
music comes in the abandonment of the retro style and personality that
defined the Newborn trilogy of scores, which never truly took themselves
seriously and were quick to move the tongue around in the cheek.
Conversely, Balfe, who confessed to being a huge fan of Newborn's work
for the franchise, went with the filmmaker demands to treat this fourth
film as a far more serious and modern topic of parody. This meant that
much of the retro style that saturated the Newborn scores is left behind
as Balfe essentially writes an imitation of his own
Mission:
Impossible music, with a touch of Hans Zimmer of the 2000's along
the way. By taking the tone to more serious levels of bravado in
The
Naked Gun, Balfe manages to lose the charm of Newborn's intent,
leaving the outright silliness up to source cue and song placements. His
broad low brass strokes, electronic embellishments, and string ostinatos
are too easy to pilfer for parody purposes, but this usage is so
ubiquitously applied to dead-serious films that it's actually not funny
hearing that music here. He even outright pulls
Mission:
Impossible material for "Project Inferno." Some might find that
in-joke amusing, but Balfe's tone for all these scores has become so
definitive in sculpting expectations of generic film music in this age
that one is left seeking the Newborn touch instead. Balfe doesn't
completely ignore the franchise's past, stating three of the Newborn
identities but doing so in drive-by cameo fashion that doesn't really
mesh well with his original themes and 2020's action tone. The score
thus struggles to convey any meaningful narrative or espouse a
consistent personality, failing to be funny by route of its own
seriousness.
Frustratingly, the main franchise theme by Newborn
doesn't factor in the actual score for
The Naked Gun, the only
payoff for the idea in the soundtrack coming in "The Naked Gun (Gordon
Goodwin Remix)," which is the highlight of the album. This very spirited
and excellent, fully orchestral recording of the classic theme swaps the
investigation/loneliness interlude sequence with Balfe's own villain
theme, and the results are superb. That Newborn investigation/loneliness
theme ends "My Name is Frank Drebin Jr." but is too slow and
half-hearted in its performance to really suffice, a disappointing
rendition despite reprising the right jazzy personality. The vintage
Drebin hero theme may slightly inform the pretty piano sensitivity of
"Hall of Legends" but is outwardly reprised with bravado and great,
resounding depth in "Press Conference." Balfe's new love theme follows
the same general structure and style as the original alternative ("The
Seduction" in 1988), a blend of seedy jazz and sappy romance in "There
She Was Again" that is reprised on solo trumpet lamentation in "Turkey
Talk." His conspiracy material devolves into
The Dark Knight
personality when allowed but does start with more promise and a Jerry
Goldsmith touch from elegantly seductive solo violin and electronics in
"Something Fowl." The villain theme becomes weightier in typical Remote
Control tones in "Project Inferno," the latter half of the first minute
reprising the equivalent from Balfe's
Mission: Impossible entries
and that mode returning near the end of the cue. This mundane posturing
thumps through "Have a Nice Trip" before erupting in very standard
action fare, and it builds ominously early in "The Main Event" and
repeats throughout the cue in generic form. Brass lines join string
ostinatos for typical action pounding in "Calm People Up," this standard
and tired approach reduced to suspense in "Two Kodiak Bears." The short
score is joined on album by two comedic songs. Unlistenable is the
surviving McNeely co-written one, "Sassafras Chicken in D," a stage
performance of pure embarrassment for Anderson. Neeson's version of the
same kind of idiocy comes in the butchered love song, "My Sweet Beth."
Once again, Balfe earns his pay by fixing a perceived studio problem,
but
The Naked Gun has none of the allure of Newborn's originals.
McNeely is owed a sincere apology from the universe.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Lorne Balfe reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.81
(in 31 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.87
(in 23,514 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
