David Zucker
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Connections, in both directions
"Horrible Bosses" follows the precedent set by such earlier crime-gone-awry comedies as "Ruthless People" (1986), "Throw Momma from the Train" (1987) and "Bottle Rocket" (1996) with gut-busting gusto.
The movie also juggles a handful of established comedic subgenres extremely well, wisely letting the currently lucrative spillover from The Hangover take center stage though better and more timeless films like Swimming with Sharks , The Ref , and Ruthless People also share an indirect lineage.
Meet the Spartans (2008)
Directed by Jason Friedberg
influenced by The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Visuals
…and The Naked Gun—are characterized by their facility with the tone and detail work of genre films and their genius combination of straight-faced B-movie actors with lowbrow punch lines and sight gags.
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Directed by John Frankenheimer
influenced The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Plot
One of the central plot devices borrows the notion of the hypnotized zombie killer from the recently rereleased The Manchurian Candidate (1962) — another example of the movie’s tendency to grab at everything in sight rather than limit its focus to one (or even two or three) genres.
Game Night feels like one of those comedies from the 1980s, usually made by Touchstone Pictures, more often than not starring the likes of Bette Midler (Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune) or Richard Dreyfuss (Stakeout), or even better the both of them (Down and Out in Beverly Hills), and that’s a good thing.
Vampires Suck (2010)
Directed by Aaron Seltzer
influenced by The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Themes
Given the two-year gap since their last movie, one might have expected Friedberg/Seltzer might have made more of an effort and come up with some quality gags in the vein of their comedic forefathers the Zucker brothers (Airplane, The Naked Gun).
Would-be comedy flies fast, but it all feels recycled and stupidnot so stupid it's funny, mind you, like in "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun," which actually had brains behind their ridiculousness, but so stupid it's just plain stupid.
Inherent Vice (2014)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
influenced by The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
…and The Naked Gun were laugh-a-minute, whereas Inherent Vice is more baffled-guffaw-every-now-and-then.
If anything, the film is trying to be something of an edgier version of the old 1986 comedy "Ruthless People" where a down-on-their-luck couple kidnap their ex-boss' wife to get revenge and extort money from him.
The Other Guys (2010)
Directed by Adam McKay
influenced by The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Themes
The Other Guys is never quite a spoof in The Naked Gun vein, but its too comedically distinctive to fall into the common action-comedy trap of avoiding laughs in favor of pyrotechnics.
Scary Movie (2000)
Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans
influenced by The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Wayans' models here appear to be the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team ("Airplane!," "The Naked Gun" series) and the Farrelly Brothers.
Featuring scenes that make American Pie, There's Something About Mary, and Me, Myself and Irene seem almost tame, Scary Movie combines the raunchiness of '90s teen comedies with the single-movie spoof approach of Mel Brooks and the rapid-fire barrage of gags and jokes used in Airplane and The Naked Gun.
It clicks off several popular movies (" Signs ," " The Sixth Sense ," " The Matrix ," " 8 Mile ," " The Ring ") and recycles scenes from them through a spoofalator, but it's feeding off these movies, not skewering them.
Part of the problem lies with their choice of films to parody this time out, a heady and at times downright bizarre mix of Gore Verbinskiâs fine remake The Ring, M. Night Shyamalanâs occasionally eerie Signs, and â wait for it â Eminemâs hip-hop rags-to-bitches tale 8 Mile.
This time around the movies being parodied are “Signs,” “The Ring,” “8 Mile,” “The Others” and more as wannabe-a-hardnosed-reporter Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris hunts down the source of a mysterious video tape that, when watched, portends death to the viewer in seven days.
The closest the movie gets to really skewering anything or anyone are moments where it goes after the increasingly preachy and self-important director M. Night Shyamalan, whose next film better be in wide-screen format if he plans on making his name any bigger than it was on Signs.
Charlie Sheen is the tortured single father with a cornfield full of alien graffiti in the Signs parody portion of the film, and brother Simon Rex takes a trip to 8 Mile to deliver Midwest rap on white bread with mayo.
Just take “The Ring,” “Signs,” “8 Mile” and “The Matrix,” throw them in a blender, and you have the story of alien invasion, an evil girl at the bottom of the well, a wannabe white rapper and some pretentious speeches.
Seven Pounds (2008)
Directed by Gabriele Muccino
influenced by The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Music
Besides being inextricably linked to 1988's spoof extraordinaire "The Naked Gun," the lyrics don't exactly lend themselves to an elementary school choir ("I walked her home and she held my hand/I knew it wouldn't be just a one-night stand").
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Directed by Gore Verbinski
influenced by The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
After the credits rolled I felt like entering the theater lobby and doing my best impression of Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun , as the fireworks store blows up in the background: “Please disperse, there’s nothing to see here!”
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Directed by Edgar Wright
influenced by The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Themes Visuals
To me, a spoof is a film that takes the cliches inherent in the genre under consideration and then amplifies them in a way that underlines just how ridiculous they are–“The Naked Gun” is a perfect example of a spoof of cop movies.
…or The Naked Gun for gut-busting laughs.
It strikes sort of an agreeable, English accented, Police Squad! tone – not that it relies on that TV show’s sight gags and puns, but that the actors deliver often silly material with a completely straight face.
Unlike cop parodies such as The Naked Gun films, Hot Fuzz builds to genuinely thrilling action scenes, only set in humble grocery stores and cobblestone town squares.
In a mountainous cast featuring what seems to be a hundred recognizable faces, Steve Buscemi (2013's " The Incredible Burt Wonderstone ") continues to show off a fearless comedic side as driving instructor Wiley; Shaquille O'Neal (2006's " Scary Movie 4 ") and Steve Austin (2010's " The Expendables ") are surprisingly inspired as Officer Fluzoo and tough guy Tommy Cavanaugh, and Cheri Oteri (2007's " Southland Tales ") is a happy addition as Penny, the delusional girl from Lenny's past that he doesn't even remember existed.
Alexander DiPersia (2008's " An American Carol ") excels as Rebecca's semi-love interest Bret the more the viewer gets to know him; at the start, he appears to be rough around the edges and untrustworthy, but he quickly proves to be exactly the opposite, supporting Rebecca and Martin in their time of need and?shocker?actually…
And anyone who has seen the magnificent battle scenes in " Braveheart " will be almost embarrassed for director director Jerry Zucker ("Ghost," "Ruthless People"), whose confusingly filmed battles do little to enhance a slow-moving story.
Ghost (1990)
Directed by Jerry Zucker
influenced by The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), Ruthless People (1986)
Themes
Director Jerry Zucker's resume of raucous farces like "Airplane!", "Ruthless People" and "The Naked Gun" gives no indication of his being capable of sustaining the movie's many shifts of tone and tempo, but he pulls it off, certainly more successfully than Spielberg did in "Always," which was more saccharine than romantic and was weighed down by overblown comic interludes.
…and "The Naked Gun," makes his solo directing debut and displays a knack for mixing comedy, suspense and romance.
"Ruthless People" and "Naked Gun" among his chief credits.
In this artistically devalued summer of schlockbusters ("Days of Total RoboCop III"), it means Jerry Zucker's movie (he made "Airplane!" and "Ruthless People") is surprisingly entertaining and goes along nicely with the theater's air conditioning.
Director Jerry Zucker's resume of raucous farces like "Airplane!", "Ruthless People" and "The Naked Gun" gives no indication of his being capable of sustaining the movie's many shifts of tone and tempo, but he pulls it off, certainly more successfully than Spielberg did in "Always," which was more saccharine than romantic and was weighed down by overblown comic interludes.
Jerry Zucker's breakthrough helming--after making his name as a comedy director (Airplane!, Ruthless People)--made a well-oiled ensemble of disparate stars and created moments so memorable they invited Zucker-esque parody.
Screenwriter Leslie Dixon nurtured this project ever since she read the original novel, “The Dark Fields,” but her credits range from “Ruthless People” to “Freaky Friday.”
Torn Curtain (1966)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
influenced The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
…by anachronistically merging two dissimilar and outdated movie formulas — the Elvis Presley rock musical and the World War II epic — and adding elements from cold war thrillers like Torn Curtain for good measure.
An elevator in a Philadelphia skyscraper gets stuck between floors, and then Satan proceeds to pick off the passengers, one by one, in mildly gruesome PG13 ways: there’s a black man (Bokeem Woodbine: Jasper, Texas ), an old woman (Jenny O’Hara: Extract ), a young woman (Bojana Novakovic: Edge of Darkness ), a white guy who’s a jerk (Geoffrey Arend: An American Carol ), and a white guy who seems like maybe he’s okay (Logan Marshall-Green: Brooklyn’s Finest ): that’s the extent of the fleshing out the characters get.