Amazon.com video review:
David Zucker--of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker creative troika
behind Airplane! and
television's Police Squad!--directed this 1988 feature film
based on the latter show. Leslie Nielsen returns to his old TV role of
Lt. Frank Drebin, the deadpan idiot with a detective's badge. The
reinvention of the failed series as a theatrical feature seems to have
inspired everyone involved to make a pretty funny movie, and the jokes
gather a momentum that lasts until the final act. Ricardo Montalban is
a perfect foil as a villain whose aquarium is being invaded by Drebin
during routine questioning, and George Kennedy is delightful in a
self-parodying part as an earnest but obtuse lawman. There's a
hilarious bit when Drebin--wearing a live police wire while going to
the bathroom--can be overheard over the loudspeakers at a speech given
by a flustered mayor (Nancy Marchand). Yes, that's O.J. Simpson as a
detective who ends up on the wrong side of numerous Drebin
blunders. --Tom Keogh
