10 Recent Movie Castings That Had No Right To Be This Good

Creating a successful reboot and/or legacy sequel can be beyond tricky even at the best of times, but to bring The Naked Gun into 2025 seemed like an impossible task, largely thanks to the unique and goofy comedy style, and the boots of Leslie Nielsen that simply could not be filled by anyone.

Whoever was cast to lead such a film would have had a difficult act to follow, but Liam Neeson was certainly a choice out of left field. Sure, he has shown his comedic side on occasion, in the likes of A Million Ways to Die in the West, and brief but hilarious cameos in Ted and Derry Girls, but this was unlike anything he had done before.

As Frank Drebin Jr., however, Liam Neeson was an unmitigated triumph. He threw himself into the silliness of the role perfectly, he had great chemistry with Pamela Anderson, and he found the right balance between playing the scenes seriously and funny.

After all, before Leslie Nielsen was cast as Dr. Rumack in Airplane!, he was not known as a comedic actor, and by the time of The Naked Gun, he was playing up to the silliness of everything just a little more, in the same way that Neeson did. This was a strategy that worked back then, and against all odds, it worked now.