Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult

Plot

Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) has retired from Police Squad and lives a basically happy life with his wife, Jane Spencer-Drebin (Priscilla Presley). It remains "basically happy" because police work has been Frank's meaning of life, and he feels unhappy about not being able to legally take on criminals anymore. Additionally, Jane tries to push him into siring a child, but Frank does not have the courage to go through this yet. It comes as a blessing to him when his old friends Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) and Nordberg (O.J. Simpson) come by and ask for his help in an investigation. The Police Squad has caught wind that a well-known bomber named Rocco Dillon (Fred Ward), who is currently incarcerated, has been hired by a terrorist (Papshmir, known from the first movie) to conduct a major terrorist act against the United States. An important contact, Tanya Peters (Anna Nicole Smith), Rocco's girlfriend, proves to be a dead end, so Drebin is asked to join Dillon undercover in prison, befriend him, and then leak details of the plan to his colleagues. However, the first part of the mission – by pure accident – proves to be extremely taxing; Jane becomes frustrated both at Frank's sudden unwillingness to engage in his marital duties and the suspicion that he is doing police work again, and storms out of the house.

Frank joins Rocco in prison, and after winning his trust, the two stage their breakout together. Rocco even manages to persuade his dominant and highly distrustful mother, Muriel (Kathleen Freeman) to take Frank into their house. However, both are loath to tell Frank too many details right away, which is why he is forced to stay around a little longer. In the meantime, Jane joins her friend Louise (Ellen Greene) on a road trip, but in time she realizes that she really misses Frank. When she calls home and receives no reply, she follows a clue Frank had inadvertently left behind to Tanya, where she is promptly taken hostage by Rocco and his mother. Frank is barely able to save her life for the time being, and eventually Rocco reveals his plan: the bomb is to be set off at this year's Academy Award ceremony, with the bomb hidden in the envelope with the nomination of the Best Picture category and triggered when the card is pulled out.

At the awarding night, Frank and Jane separate from Rocco's team and frantically begin searching for the bomb, with Frank inflicting his usual chaos on stage during the prelude show. However, Frank and Jane are unable to find the bomb before the nomination for Best Picture has begun. When Frank bursts onto the stage and awkwardly tries to prevent the detonation of the bomb, Rocco and his mother realize what is going on and kidnap Jane, but in the process, Frank loosens an electronic sign which takes out Muriel. Desperate, Rocco decides to detonate the bomb to follow his mother, but Frank manages to catapult Rocco and the bomb out of the awarding hall right into Papshmir's private helicopter (which was circling overhead), with the bomb eliminating all hostile parties involved. Frank and Jane reaffirm their love under the applause of the awarding audience and viewers worldwide. Nine months later, Frank and Nordberg rush into the pediatric ward to witness the birth of Frank's child but in their hurry run into the wrong delivery. Seeing that the baby is African-American, Frank assumes Nordberg is responsible and angrily chases him. Just after they leave, Ed comes out of another hospital room with Jane, who is holding their real baby.

Cast

Production

This is the only film in the series to be directed by Peter Segal, rather than David Zucker, who instead received credit for writing the screenplay. Similar to the previous entry in the series, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker did not write the film's script, but both returned as executive producers and received writing credits due to their contributions to Police Squad! and the first film.

Several scenes had been planned for the earlier films but cut out. The opening sequence had been planned for the first film. The scene where Frank and Jane get married, then drive off with Nordberg on the back of the car, was shot for the second film. In the latter, the car being driven is the electric car featured in the second film.

In the opening scene at the train station, the woman with the baby carriage who is assisted by Frank Drebin is played by Susan Breslau, the sister of Jerry and David Zucker.

The dream sequence parodies the train-station shoot-out from the 1987 film The Untouchables, which is itself a homage to the "Odessa Steps" montage in Sergei Eisenstein's famous 1925 silent movie Battleship Potemkin.

Director Peter Segal, in addition to playing the producer of Sawdust and Mildew, also has several minor roles in the film (mostly in voiceover):

Reception

Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult received mixed reviews from critics. The film holds a 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10, with the critical consensus reading, "Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult can't help but be sporadically funny thanks to Leslie Nielsen's dependably solid work, but it's still a steep comedown from the original.". Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Times praised the opening sequence, which parodied The Untouchables, and the climax at the Academy Awards, but felt the middle was uninspired, and that the film overall had too little plotting and relied too much on comedy without the romantic or action elements of the previous films. Others felt that the humor was weak and too similar to that of the previous films. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, which is the same rating he gave to The Naked Gun 2½.

The movie was nominated for and won two Golden Raspberry Awards, Worst Supporting Actor for O.J. Simpson and Worst New Star for Anna Nicole Smith.

Box office

The film made over US$51 million domestically according to Box Office Mojo. That more than exceeded its estimate US$30 million production budget. However, this would be the lowest-grossing film of the Naked Gun series. Still, 33⅓ managed to grab the #1 weekend box office title in the U.S. during its opening weekend (the other Naked Guns did as well).

Cameo appearances

Numerous celebrities have cameo appearances in the film, both in credited and uncredited roles.

As themselves:

As minor characters:

Related litigation

An image used on the promotional poster for the film parodies a famous portrait photograph by Annie Leibovitz which was featured on the August 1991 cover of Vanity Fair magazine. The original photograph showed a pregnant, nude Demi Moore, and the parody photograph showed Leslie Nielsen in a similar pose. Leibovitz sued Paramount for copyright infringement; the Second Circuit deemed the use to be protected under fair use because of its transformative parodic purpose.