I love the original Naked Gun movies so much that I knew that no matter what, this probably wouldn’t make me happy. Taking on the mantle of Leslie Nielsen is basically a suicide mission, like trying to out-drink Oliver Reed or out-scream Klaus Kinski. It shouldn’t work and it really doesn’t, but I still had some fun with this.

Liam Neeson steps into the oversized, slapstick-covered shoes of Frank Drebin Jr. He’s investigating the death of a software engineer that smells fishier than a cannery in a heatwave. Along for the ride is Pamela Anderson as Beth Davenport. She honestly handles the deadpan absurdity better than most “serious” actors could (after her Criterion Closet appearance, I love her even more) and Paul Walter Hauser, who is slowly becoming the patron saint of character actors, is decent.

The villain is Richard Cane (Danny Huston), a tech billionaire who wants to use a P.L.O.T. Device to turn humanity back into primal beasts. It’s the kind of high-concept nonsense that would make the Zuckers proud, and it gives the movie an excuse to jump from a threesome with a magical snowman to a chase scene involving an electric car, a swarm of bees, and a replacement windshield.

The thing about the original films—and the short-lived Police Squad!—is that they weren’t just funny; they were relentless. They attacked the frame from every angle. Schaffer (the man who gave us Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, a film I will defend until the day I die and Becca buries me with my Jess Franco blu-rays) understands gags.

Neeson is the secret weapon here. We’ve spent the last twenty years watching him growl into burner phones and punch people’s throats, so watching him use a bank robber as a literal human shield or get airlifted by the spirit of his father—who has manifested as an owl—is fun.

Is it high art? No. Is it as good as the 1988 original? Nothing is. But in a world of elevated horror and meta blockbusters that take themselves way too seriously, seeing a man lose his pants at a Ponzi-scheme.com Arena while trying to save the world is a cinematic palette cleanser.