Pun Salad

I loved the old Police Squad TV show. It only lasted for six episodes in 1982.

I watched the resulting movie series with Leslie Nielsen, in 1988, 1991, and 1994. My recollection: generally OK, but not as good.

And the latest installment in the resulting movie series was free-to-me on Paramount+, my Saturday night was free, so …

Well, the comedy dropoff continues. There's a lot of mugging for the camera. (One great thing about the TV show: Leslie Nielsen and Alan North were just about always deadpan.) There's a lot of absurdity that seldom manages to be actually funny. The best jokes are the ones stolen from the previous entries.

Anyway: Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin, Junior, trying to follow in Dad's footsteps. He's a parody of a cop who doesn't play by the rules, shooting first, asking (no) questions later, which puts him constantly at odds with his superiors. His billionaire antagonist, Richard Cane, is hatching a scheme to loose violent anarchy upon the nation, aided by a gadget named "Primitive Online Transmission", or a P.L.O.T device. (That actually got a grin from me.)

Pamela Anderson plays the love interest, who also is seeking revenge for her dead brother, sent to his doom by Cane. She's better than I would have expected!