The only reason to see this movie is to see if it works, if they got it right and if Liam Neeson can pull it off. The simple answer is no.

First off, like the profound weight that meant the 2024 remake of The Crow could probably never succeed, Leslie Neilson was incomparable. He did what he did with his stance, his delivery, his stoic expression and his completely white hair, and nobody could do what he did in the spoof comedy genre since (or has).

But that didn't mean Neeson couldn't make it his own. He's no stranger to comedy and he's good at it. Watch him even in dud projects like A Million Ways to Die in the West, or in far better material like his bit in Ricky Gervais' Extras or his role as Bad Cop in The Lego Movie. He understands how to be funny.

The problem here is the jokes, or rather the lack of them. Zucker, Zucker and Abrahams, who were behind Police Squad And The Naked Gun films that it gave rise to, understood something critical.

The premise, the characters and everything else could be ridiculous, ham-fisted and not even terribly interesting. They're all scaffolding for one thing and one thing only – jokes. Way back to Airplane!, they built in so many visual and dialogue gags that came so thick and fast you barely took any notice of anything else, and even though certain films in comedy need a heart and soul, Airplane!, The Naked Gun and their progeny never did.

The other crucial difference is that in that style of comedy – if done well – the jokes zing past and they're gone. Nowhere in this film is it plainer the writers and director didn't understand that than in the extended set pieces (like the romantic weekend and the snowman) that aren't that amusing to begin with and go on way too long.

So whether I've just grown up and my tastes in comedy have become more sophisticated (I dread to think so) or whether the writers Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Akiva Schaffer just weren't very good or didn't try hard enough, I spent most of the time thinking 'this is stupid' instead of laughing. I chortled a handful of times, but more because I was trying to enjoy it rather than because the film made me do so spontaneously.

It exists in the same universe as the prior series, where Frank Drebin (Neeson) is the character played by Neilson's son. Police Squad, an elite detective unit in the LAPD, is overstepping the mark once again thanks to Drebin's propensity to ignore the rules, shoot first and ask questions later.

That's even despite his ability to get the job done, like he does in the opening (as you've seen in the trailer) where he sneaks into the midst of a bank robbery dressed as a prepubescent schoolgirl, pulling off the mask (and somehow growing to his six foot height) to reveal himself and take the bad guys down.

The story (if you care), is that the bank job was a cover to steal a piece of secret hardware in a safe deposit box. When a software engineer's car goes into a ravine and it's written off as a suicide, Drebin smells a rat, especially when he finds a matchbox from an exclusive club in the guy's car. And as it turns out, the guy's femme fatale sister, crime novelist Beth (Pamela Anderson), agrees with Drebin.

When he crosses paths with tech magnate Richard Cane (Danny Huston, and just like Anthony Hopkins spent decades in the wise-old-exposition-sage role, Huston – in another nod to The Crow – is playing exactly the same snivelling villain these days), who invites Frank to his private club, it's the one on the matchbox from the dead man's car.

Frank and Beth go to the club to investigate further, Cane becoming captivated by Beth while Frank tries to find security footage evidence of the wrongdoing, spotting it when he sees the dead man meeting with a journalist.

The race is on to produce the proof and incriminate Cane, the journalist turns up dead, Drebin is framed for the killing, Police Squad is disbanded, he goes on the lam to finish the case, etc, etc etc… It's the worst cookie cutter 80s cop action thriller storyline, and that'd be fine in a comedy that was actually funny.