The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)

This isn't an half bad sequel to the entertaining "Naked Gun" (1988) with Leslie Nielsen reprising his hapless "Drebin" character. This time he teams up again with "Ed" (George Kennedy) and "Nordberg" (OJ Simpson) to try to thwart the ambitions of big business in the energy sector. To protect their control over domestic power consumption, these moguls arrange for the kidnapping of a scientist - "Dr. Mainheimer" (Richard Griffiths). He is about to publish a far reaching report extolling the viability of solar power as a cheap and available source of electricity for everyone. Things is, though, it's not just a simple kidnap - they plan to substitute this learned man with a fraud who will ensure they retain their monopolies for years to come. Can the "Police Squad" get their act together in time...? It all gets a little more precarious when we discover that "Jane" (Priscilla Presley) is the assistant to the professor - and renewing his association with her after a while sets Drebin into many a comedy tailspin. As with the first film, the humour is quick-fire, contemporary and often more Laurel & Hardy than, well, Laurel & Hardy. Griffiths was a good comedy actor, his facial expressions and his sheer size were attributes he new well how to exploit to elicit a laugh. There is loads of on screen chemistry too to enjoy here, and it's not even ninety minutes so there's not enough time to get bored by the rather formulaic plot. That last point is what drags it down. It is difficult to reinvent the wheel, and to be honest very little effort appears to have gone into making this sufficiently different from the first outing. It's just too similar, with too many punchlines you can see from space. Still, it does what it says on the tin - and it does raise a smile - just not a guffaw.