North Bay Nugget from North Bay, Ontario, Canada • 14

B-4 THE NORTH BAY NUGGET SATURDAY MARCH 19 1994 Entertainment- Movie flick picker Nielsen a man with a mission Naked Gun star treats his comedy seriously NEW YORK Movie ratings from critics and reviewers across Canada 'TEuallaat I Am Hi Marais If Har 9 Awful 8 Second Angle Blue Chips TheChaee Chirm Moon The Getaway Greedy Guarding Taaa Gunman IV Do Anything Lightning Jack My Girl 2 On Daadfy Ground RaalityBltaa The Ret Romeo la Bleeding ScNndler'a Uat Eating Gilbert Grape It I HIT 1 A A lit III 1MM Tif AT TAT HIM T' TKi-i A AIA 9'W St nltf tt A Tk fA tIt tW AIA A IB A A A Southun Nm GnpNca Southern New Poos Nielsen right returns as Lieut Frank Drebin in Naked Gun 33 13: The Final IiimiIi struggles with Raquel Welch who makes a cameo appearance when Drebin and his crash the Academy Awards ceremony to foil a terrorist Top popular tracks (1) The Colour of Low Caine Dion (3) August and Everything Counting Crows (2) Croaa of Enigma (4) The Sign Ace of Bom (5) PMadalpNa VMous Aitait (7) CraataalHda Tom Petty Heswttneate 7 (10) Siamese Draam Smashing HmpMns (8) Music Mariah Caray HHaHow Back 10 (6) Jar of Flies Afioa In Chains (1) The Power of Love CoKne Dion 2 (2) Said I Lova You But I lied Mtehaet Bolton 2 O) Ghetto Jam Domino 4 (4) When Man SaK Pops 5 (5) WMhout You Mariah Carey (6) Just Kickin' Xscapa 7 (9) Groove Thong Zhane 1(13) Eternal 0 (11) Undemanding Xscape 10 (10) Family Attain Slwbba Ranks Frank Nielsen says solemnly bond is absolute steeL accepted it now totally that I'm really playing myself just as dumb and stupid as Frank At this point the poker face disappears and Nielsen starts laughing But although permissible to break up in front of reporters it will never happen on screen Nielsen explains One of the reasons the films are so popular is that the characters cany out their duties Naked Gun 212f highest grossing! box office' I "ever made witba fraction in the" title with total seriousness Nielsen says other filmmakers have attempted to match the comic success of Naked Gun and such associated hits as Ha Shot and Airplane which have also emanated from the stable of Zucker and his colleagues almost none of these other films says Nielsen fall into that ever-loving trap which seems to pervade too much comedy this preoccupation on the part of the writer the directa and therefore the acta in making sure that everyone KNOWS how funny they're being if (CP) Leslie Nielsen says gleefully as he spots the array of tape recorders on the table in front of him you very much!" he tells reporters as he begins collecting the machines and shoving them into the pockets of his suede jacket kidding of course A moment later the recorders are back on die table and Nielsen is looking solemn again That's a cue to move on to a bit of wicked mischief that is now a Nielsen trademark: the Canadian-born actor shifts in his chair to trigger the very audible sound of breaking wind Nielsen is here officially to talk about Naked Gun 33 13: The Final Insult but he still loves to bring his notorious whoopee cushion to such occasions especially if he can try it out on innocents unfamiliar with his delight in making rude noises One such innocent was supermodel Anna Nicol Smith Playboy 1993 Playmate of the year and the lady in Guess Jeans ads Smith who plays a sexy femme fatale in the new film was horrified when Nielsen did it during a dinner party in a very select restaurant remember thinking 'Oh my god I can't believe this is happening' recalls Smith But she quickly forgave her irreverent colleague me tell you Leslie is the funniest man I've met in my entire Nielsen may be funny but he takes light entertainment seriously And he brings the same formidable dedication to the role of the bumbling police LicuL Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun films that he has brought to his more sober assignments Indeed he almost seems to have a sense of mission about these films very little happening in the world these days that's Nielsen says boy we need some lightening up sane fun some In other wads the world needs Nielsen and his zany cohorts on the Naked Gun team along with their view that nothing absolutely nothing is sacred Naked Gun 33 13: The Final Insult which opened Friday follows Naked Gun and Naked Gun 2 1 tl Paramount proudly describes the latter as highest grossing movie ever made with a fraction in the with a box-office figure far exceeding that of previous record-holder 8 Naked Gun 2 12 also made more money than its predecessor S86 million in North America alone which is rarely the case with sequels Will the new one do even better? "Let's just say we'd be thrilled just to equal our last says producer Jerry Zucker Certainly the latest entry in the canon carries irreverence to new extremes Even before the credits start unrolling it performs a lethal demolition job on directa Brian De much admired railway station scene in The Untouchables And as the movie continues its merry way the target count mounts rapidly Among those on the receiving end: Demi Moore Mother Teresa Phil Donahue women who breastfeed in public male fertility centres prison movies and (appearing as themselves) Raquel Welch and Pia Zan-dora The juiciest target at all is Hollywood and its annual Academy Awards ceremony This happens during the climax when Drebin and his colleagues crash the Oscars in a desperate attempt to foil villain Fired Ward's diabolical plan to plant a bomb in one of the award envelopes and blow up finesL During these scenes Drebin manages to wreak total havoc He also does a fumble-footed dance routine with Zandora performs an outrageous impersonation of Phil Donahue falls down stain and throws up into a tuba now have this profound psychological attachment to Leslie Here he detectives Leslie characters Naked music picks Ammo: The Btoord Bluffy TMAMbmI Country with us not for a particle of one second does the audience feel that we think we're being funny We are being deadly This is the rale followed by everyone in the cast including such Naked Gun regulars as Priscilla Presley (back again as devoted wife Jane) and George Kennedy and Simpson once more called upon to portray Frank's embattled police colleagues Directed by Peter Segal and scripted by Zucker Pat Profl and Robert LoCash Naked Gun 3 13 has Drebin being called out of retirement to go undercover and foil a terrorist ploL The filmmakers are ruthless in cutting material that work Presley had high hopes fa one bit of slapstick involving ha charscta but it just pay off on die screen just funny" Nielsen says ga cut because it work properly What is always at stake in these films is credibility "You can't afford to have anything up there that is not credible Or as Aristotle may have said: The probable impossible is preferable to the possible improbable how we Nielsen has had a remarkably durable four-decade career since Lome Greece's Academy of Radio Arts in Toronto awarded him a scholarship to study drama at New Yak's Neighborhood Playhouse Forbidden Planet the 1936 science fiction film he made for MGM remains a cult favorite to this day But Nielsen has achieved his greatest popularity in his '60s playing Frank Drebin the clumsiest cop in the universe Nielsen doesn't worry about being trapped in the Drebin role He returns occasionally to the stage where he has won praise for his one-man show about famed lawyer Clarence Dar-row don't have anything to prove to anybody at this stage I've done all these roles on television in mo- -vies and in theatre and they add up to quite a variety of work If I want to do something dramatic now I can go back on stage and play Danow but being doing it for myself and for a live audience na trying to prove In any event Nielsen is talking to Paramount about a comedy written by the creators of The Simpsons in which he would play a gymnasium owner also the possibility of a home movie in which Nielsen would be playing someone far removed from Drebin also a Naked Gun 4 in the works already talking about it" says Nielsen And no na tired of the character gets tired of (CP) North country picks No Doubt About It Nad McCoy Ha Thinka Keep Har Mary Carpenter TLC ASAP Alabama Standing Outaide tha Hie Garth Brook Try in' to Gat Over You GUI That'a My Story Colin Raya They Aaked About You Raba McEntire Goodbye Saya It All Blackhawk Nobody Gat Too Much Lova Charlie Major My Lova UtdaTaxaa Who Saya You Hava it AH Alan Jackaon I'm Holding My Own Laa Roy Pamel By Joel Feeney Ufa 9 Martina McBride If Hie Good Die Young Lawrence I Can't Reach Har Anymore Sammy Karahaw Word By Heart Billy Ray Cyrua Rock Bottom Wynonna Indian Outlaw Tim McGraw a Hava to Do Thia Tanya Tucker Nielsen star of the Naked Gun series says the carry out all their duties with total seriousness A Gun 4 is also in the works CKATs Top 40 Countdown can be heard Saturday mornings from 9 am to noon.