Ben O'Shea: I Loved Liam Neeson... Once Upon A Time

Ben O’Shea joined the guys to farewell Clairsy and review the latest comedy blockbuster Naked Gun. Trying his hand at comedy was he successful? Let’s just say, he’s no Leslie Nielsen. Lisa questioned why Hollywood keeps remaking good films instead of giving bad ones a second shot.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Great per flick with benha.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I actually got I'm actually too busy seeing movies. They
are all late at night. All the movies happen at nighttime.
So I can't I can't be breakfast radio. You won't
be here at five thro or six o'clock any no, no,
but look it is it is a great tragedy that
you are leaving us clzy. Yet we still seem to
be subjected to Liam Neeson movies. Oh my god, put

(00:27):
that guy out to pasture. Sorry so, but it's really
like once like I love Liam Neeson once upon a time,
Like I think he's probably twenty years past his use
by date in the last But if anything, the older
he gets, the more movies, it doesn't make it look
doesn't he is prolific. I would say in the last
ten years he's made over twenty movies. Every single one

(00:48):
of them has been terrible.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
He was on the on the farm and Who's trying
to save the farm shoots everybody.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Every movie is basically the same plot. Someone he loves
is taken away from him, and eventually it gets to
the point where it's like, you gotta look at yourself, mate,
Why does this keep happening, I know, so anyway, so
he's hit so with Liam Neeson is now in a
comedic role in The Naked Gun. It's kind of like
a reboot. It's kind of like a.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Sea Felie Nielsen.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
He's technically playing Frank Drebben's horse was made iconic by
Leslie Nielsen. He's playing Frank Dreben Junior, his son of
Frank Drebbond. But it's very similar to the Believe Brother
hang On was the original Naked Gun movie in nineteen
twenty eight. No, it's you know, there are some films

(01:41):
that you think, as soon as you think of them,
you can instantly picture the cover of the VHS in
the civic videos, and The Naked Gun in nineteen eighty
eight is one of those. Leslie Nilsen sort of surfing
the bullet through the guy when he's holding a police
ID and the gun. It is just you just picture
it straight away. And it was such a comedy. And
there was two films that came afterwards in the nineties

(02:02):
ninety one and ninety four I think that were also
commercially successful. Critically, they were pretty well received and certainly
by the fans. They were beloved because Leslie Nielsen is
Frank Dreben.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Nice faver having this stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
It was just joke after joke after joke, and the
films and the films were also they also featured O. J.
Simpson before he murdered two people, and so when it
was okay to laugh at him. But and you think,
surely knowes have an age very well, but you go
back and watch them and it's just basically, you know,
nineteen minutes of O. J. Simpson getting the absolute you

(02:38):
know what, getting beaten out of him, and.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, good on it. I like it. You laugh, you
almost laugh even hard chair on the grand stand. Why
four there exactly?

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Oh he does absolutely cop it. So this time around
Leslie Nielson, Leslie Wilson, Liam Neeson. It's hard to say
that both Liam Neeson plays Frank Dreben Junior, who very
similar kind of character, sort of a bumbling cop, sort
of classic sort of you know, sort of film noir vibes,
and he's got to solve this murder of this kind

(03:10):
of tech developer who worked for it, this tech guru
like Elon Musk electric vehicle kind of manufacturer who maybe
has you know, some kind of agenda to take over
the world, and the murder is linked to that, so
kind of like again, it's quite similar in plot to
the original film. And the sister of the guy who

(03:30):
dies played by Pamela Anderson. She's the classic fem fatale
damsel in distress sort of character. Which that set up
sounds fine, right like, that sounds okay, But the problem
comes in because Liam Neeson is just so ancient he
barely is able to talk in a way that you go,

(03:54):
what is he even saying right now? His voice is
so crotchety, his face.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
Turned into clares his impersonation.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Look, I think now's the perfect time.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Let's hear bring me back my daughter. I will find
I will find you. I have a particular set of skills.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
That's not bad.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
You've been practicing, honestly, honestly, that's better. That is that
sounds better.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
Than did you play that from my eye and just
leave you?

Speaker 3 (04:19):
I did you notice that I'm canny?

Speaker 2 (04:21):
I'm actually shook by that, discombobulated to be honest, sorry,
and so yeah, and so like you remember Leslie Nielsen,
right like he could do so much with just like
one cocked eyebrow, like a character would say something and
he'd be like yes, and you would be in stitches.
Not only can Liam Neeson not do that, his face
is in a grimace. He honestly looks like he's a corpse.

(04:44):
It's like a weekend at Bernie's kind of situation. And
then you've got Pamela Anderson as his love interest. And look, Pammy,
I love her, and she's had a bit of a
renaissance in recent yas, but if we're being honest, she's
never really the best actor.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Like she's not.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
I don't know that was acting, and I'm not sure
which bits of our actor anyway, and so so she's
not great. Liam Neeson is not great, and they're the
center of the film. And so then you've really got
nothing that you're enjoying as you're watching it. And the jokes,
you know, you'd think, how hard is it to get
some naked gun jokes? Even though we live in a
more politically correct time, you can still there's plenty of

(05:23):
slapstick humor opportunities, but they're not funny because the guys,
the guys who wrote this movie, right, do you know
what the biggest achievement on their resumes is Chip and
Dale Rescue Rangers. Oh yeah, like, I'm not even joking you.
The guys who wrote Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers are
the people who wrote the Naked Gut and and it's
made even worse the strips and you know, nothing to

(05:46):
do with those Dales, and we're talking about the squirrels
and the squirrels and to make matters even worse. So
you got these guys who are probably a little bit
out of their depth. The producer is Seth McFarlane, the
guy who created The Family Guy MO So, I reckon,
I reckon. These two writers were trying to impress Seth McFarlane.
Sounds like so and so that some of the jokes
are honestly so crass and not crass in a kind

(06:10):
of naked Gun Leslie Nielsen funny way, crass in a Ted.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Way, Superfamily Guy way.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, and honestly I couldn't even repeat some of them
on this on this show.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
Here's what I don't understand. Why do they keep trying
to remake really good movies remake crap movies? And then
you've got somewhere low to start with. Don't do things
like naked gun, don't touch flying high.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
That about Leslie Nielsen, you just can't recreate that. You
can't because him just looking at it, you cannot, like,
maybe it's done. Maybe you could have Steve with Steve
Martin ten years ago, years ago.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Maybe, but like you need, you need a comedian, right,
Leslie Nielsen. His his brilliance was he was once like
a classic Hollywood leader. He was he's very handsome, and
then and then he evolved into this comic actor with
Flying High and then obviously then they good gun movies.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Liam Neeson, he's just not funny what he was in
Shindle's list. Yeah, but like honestly, Shindle's list was funny
than this wonderful.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
All right, now closely, if you will, would you ask
Ben for a writing as Liam Neson plays, Then I.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Know, my friend, you have a particular skill. How many
no makeup pammies? Would you give this one a fine?

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Oh my god, for the two of them skills? All right,
Thank you Ben, thanks guys, and thank you thanks mate,