Looking at Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker
Remember hacking around in the rec room and thinking up dumb skits with your buddies? Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker — the only directing triumvirate in modern Hollywood history — figured out a way to do this for a living. The partners have since splintered into separate threats, and the Zucker brothers have had hits with Ghostand The Naked Gun. Now, with the success of Hot Shots!, Abrahams' turn has come. The scorecard so far:
Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker
The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
Directed by John Landis and
written by and starring three straight-faced wisenheimers, Kentucky
offers one rude sketch after another. B
Airplane! (1980)
The essential ZAZ recipe: Take a pound of genre
clichés, a gaggle of TV has-beens, sprinkle liberally with bad puns,
slapstick, and baby-boomer in-jokes. Puree in a blender. Overbake.
Serves: everybody. A+
Police Squad
Before The Naked Gun, Lieut. Frank Drebin ran amok in
six original TV adventures that sank like stones. They're available
on video, though, and CBS is rerunning them this summer. Don't make
the same mistake twice. B+
Top Secret! (1984)
A mutant whelp of Elvis movies and The Dirty
Dozen, starring Val Kilmer. Underrated and awfully funny. B
Ruthless People (1986)
Dale Launer's script allowed ZAZ the
chance to actually develop a few characters. And what characters:
Bette Midler as a kidnap victim nobody wants back, Danny De Vito as
her venal husband, and Bill Pullman as the stupidest person alive. A
David Zucker
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Your TV
series was a complete flop, so what do you do? Simple: talk somebody
into giving you more money to make it into a hit movie. Now, that's
chutzpah. A-
The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991)
It's even broader
than the first Gun, and a few too many gags have been recycled from
Police Squad! None of it matters. In a summer of moping Robin Hoods
and rampaging robots, Fear is a welcome blast of silliness. B+
Jerry Zucker
Ghost (1990)
This potent box office winner marked the first ZAZ
foray into drama. It's slick and sappy, but it has earned its place
in the pop culture Hall of Fame. If you need proof, check out the
pottery-lust scene parody in The Naked Gun 2 1/2, in which David
Zucker directorially gives a noogie to his kid brother. C+
Jim Abrahams
Big Business (1988)
A lumpy
Bette-Midler-and-Lily-Tomlin-play-twins farce, Big Business remains
the only real misfire of all ZAZ projects. High in concept, low in
octane, it's just another gaseous Hollywood contrivance. D+
Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990)
Despite Winona Ryder having
to play a character named ''Dinky,'' this human comedy about a town
that goes nuts when a prodigal daughter returns didn't deserve box
office oblivion. A flaky, occasionally affecting film, Roxy plays
better on video. B-
