Naked Gun 333: The Final Insult

For all those fans desperate to find out what the Statesville Prison actually looks like, here's your chance. It's where Lt Frank Drebin (Nielsen) goes very conspicuously undercover when he's brought back from retirement, and a rough ride at the sperm bank, to monitor the activities of Rocco (Ward), a terrorist with grand plans. That's about it in terms of story (except for the usual heart-rending subplot detailing Drebin's efforts to win back the beloved Jane), but who cares? The spoof-policier series is about non-stop gags, pure and simple, and this third instalment, for all its lax plotting and ludicrous characterisation, remains infinitely more pleasurable than sticking you face in a fan. Indeed, the five minutes of the pre-credits sequence are quite possibly the funniest since the talkies came in. Thereafter, it's hit and miss, but the hits are so frequent and spot-on, you'd have to be dead (and buried) not to find the film painfully hilarious. Inspired, inspirational, gloriously inane.