dglink
A late entry in Leslie Nielsen's career-rebooting series of movie parodies, 1998's "Wrongfully Accused" treads familiar territory. However, the film will likely be catnip to fans of "Airplane," "Naked Gun," and "Police Squad." Written, produced, and directed by Pat Proft, a veteran writer on the "Police Squad" TV series and the "Naked Gun" movie trilogy, the movie is an endless string of hit-or-miss sight gags, bad puns, and slapstick. While showing his age, the 72-year-old Nielsen manages to keep up with the frantic pace. Proft's first and only directorial effort is a take-off on Harrison Ford's "The Fugitive," and Nielsen plays Ryan Harrison, a moniker among numerous obvious references, who is a music virtuoso also known as Lord of the Violin. Nielsen is passingly involved with the wife of Hibbing Goodhue, played by Michael York, and, when York is murdered, Nielsen is convicted of the crime, jailed, and sentenced to death. The set pieces imitate the original film with a train-bus wreck in which Nielsen escapes, a pursuit in the sewers, and a daring jump into a raging river. On the run, Nielsen seeks to prove his innocence by finding a one-armed, one-legged, one-eyed man, all the while pursued by Richard Crenna, a garrulus cop named Lieutenant Fergus Falls. For movie buffs, the references to old movies are enough to make the film entertaining; from extended scenes that mimic "The Usual Suspects," "Mission Impossible," "Titanic," and "North by Northwest," to passing references to "The Empire Strikes Back," "Field of Dreams," and "Braveheart," to dialog lifted from "Casablanca," Proft's movie is great fun. Viewers are advised to sit through the wacky end credits, which like those of earlier Nielsen spoofs, include a number of genuinely funny attributions. Unfortunately, unlike other Nielsen spoofs, the cast is light on star cameos, and only York and Sandra Bernhardt are well known among the cast. While Melinda McGraw plays Nielsen's sidekick and love interest, she fails to make a strong impression, and the more than 35-year age difference between Nielsen and McGraw is borderline icky. However, the May-December attraction is a small quibble. The audience for "Wrongfully Accused" knows what they paid for, and the film generally delivers. However, those who hated "Airplane" and "Naked Gun" are warned to stay clear.
brianpalma
Wrongfully Auccused as you can probably tell by the poster is a parody of the 1993 Harrison Ford flick "The Fugitive" starring Leslie Nielsen as 'Ryan Harrison'. The film didn't seem to have been released in the UK as I couldn't find a DVD or even a VHS anywhere so I imported my DVD copy from France (with English audio) to watch it and I've got to admit, I was quiet surprised. I will say, the first 30 minutes I was howling with laughter (especially the bus and train escape scene) but the rest of the film was still pretty funny but not as much 'laugh out loud' jokes as the first half. My only main problem with the film is that some scenes towards the end were a bit slow with not that funny jokes, other than that, It was a good comedy. Definitely a lot funnier than Dracula: Dead and Loving or any of the overrated 'Scary Movie' movies you get these days, also Leslie Nielsen looks like he's having fun in this movie unlike Dracula which he looked like he was sleepwalking and board throughout. BTW The Simpsons Movie ripped off one of the jokes from this movie (specifically the one where Ryan Harrison is in the fishing store and sees a 'wanted' poster of him and decides to draw over his face then the store clerk sees a guy that looks the same as the scribbled Ryan Harrison poster).
Howlin Wolf
The Naked Gun movies had a character who didn't know he was stupid, mostly based in reality... Leslie Nielson flopping over a waterfall with some dolphins (instead of salmon?) is not in any way based in reality... Take out the jokes and Naked Gun still sort of vaguely hangs together as a police movie, but Wrongfully Accused is not in any way thrilling... All of the Naked Guns are far better movies. This and Spy Hard (haven't seen Dracula Dead and Loving it, and I suspect I don't want to!) are terrible. They may be spoofs, but Naked Gun still went to the trouble of providing a solid context for the absurdity... Wrongfully Accused isn't remotely interested in the setup to a joke, just its negligible payoff, and regrettably, this haphazardness shines through in the final quality of the film.
nialljames
Wrongfully Accused is what you expect out of a parody. The best way to describe it is "average". You get a few good laughs but that's it. It references a lot of other famous films however these references are stretched, making the flow of the film choppy. The humour is also stretched, low and at times, a bit strained. It seems as if the writer was trying to make the script as funny as possible, but tried too hard. The result is a film that relies too much on sexual double entendres and visual gags. You'll get a few laughs out of it but don't expect much else. Go in with the right attitude and you will enjoy it.
