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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of The Naked Gun (Lorne Balfe)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only for the one outstanding rendition of the main
franchise theme by Ira Newborn included at the conclusion of the
album.
Avoid it... if you demand the jazzy style of Newborn's trilogy of scores to persist in what is instead a love letter from Lorne Balfe to his own music.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Naked Gun: (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 The Naked Gun: From
the Files of Police Squad! joined Airplane! 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 The Naked Gun 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, The Naked Gun 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. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 30:49
* performed by Pamela Anderson ** performed by Liam Neeson
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for this album.
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2025, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from The Naked Gun are Copyright © 2025, Milan Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/18/25 (and not updated significantly since). |
