National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)

The object in the parody racket is to get to the ripe subject matter before somebody else does. Loaded Weapon 1 fails in that effort, but it's not a fatal flaw. From its titular joke involving sequel numerals, which was first done by the Naked Gun movies, to yet another Basic Instinct send-up, Loaded Weapon 1 is pretty much all been there, done that. Even the buddy cop genre overlaps with the detective genre skewered in The Naked Gun, with similar jokes involving yellow crime scene tape and the chalk outlines around dead bodies. That said, it keeps up enough of a rapid-fire pace to please those who consider any parody a worthwhile 90 minutes of willful cheekiness. It's also fun to watch how many stars believed in this project -- beyond the appealing leads, there are cameos ranging from Bruce Willis to Corey Feldman to F. Murray Abraham to Denis Leary. The good sportsmanship is occasionally rewarded with good jokes -- such as Whoopi Goldberg politely clarifying directions to the home of the man she's just snitched on, even after the villain has already shot her -- but not enough to rise to the level of the better Jim Abrahams-Jerry Zucker spoofs. If this is supposed to be a joke-a-minute film, there's a genuinely amusing one about every five. However, 20 percent is not considered a high success rate in most enterprises. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide