Now Streaming: Akiva Schaffer's HOT ROD, THE WATCH, POPSTAR, CHIP 'N DALE: RESCUE RANGERS

This week sees the release of The Naked Gun, a remake of the awesome 1988 original, which was written by the awesome Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker (the three talents known unofficially as ZAZ) and Pat Proft, and directed by David Zucker.

I watched the original with a good friend during its theatrical release and laughed uproariously. I'm afraid to watch it again for fear it won't hold up. Filmmakers, however, are never afraid, as witness this week's new version of a treasured classic.

Director Akiva Schaffer and childhood friends Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone began making comedy movies together after college, eventually becoming known as The Lonely Island. In fall 2005, Schaffer began directing digital shorts for Saturday Night Live, which led to his first feature film.

Hot Rod (2007)
The film is now streaming on Paramount Plus.

Astride his motorized bicycle, Andy Samberg proclaims himself to be a stuntman in the tradition of famed daredevil Evil Knievel and declares that he will jump 15 buses to raise money to pay for much-needed surgery for his stepfather, Ian McShane.

Written by South Park veteran Pam Brady, the film is a knockabout comedy that is only fitfully funny. Still, it shows promise, and features a game cast doing their best to make the narrative sing, even if it can only hum. Jorma Taccone, Bill Hader, Danny McBride, Isla Fisher, Will Arnett, and Sissy Spacek also star. Akiva Schaffer's direction is most evident in some of the madcap scenes between Samberg and his friends, and the slambang editing style.

The Watch (2012)
The film is now streaming on Starz.

Four neighborhood strangers -- Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Richard Aoyoade, Jonah Hill -- come together in a Neighborhood Watch group. Instead, they happen upon aliens from space.

Reportedly, Jared Stern's original family-friendly script was tarted up by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to make it more suitable for young adults; i.e., they added a ton of profanity and dirty jokes. Whatever the case -- somebody wrote that super-weird basement orgy sequence -- Akiva Schaffer made a Hollywood studio comedy that is not terribly funny, and even less so in consideration of its timing, which was right around the time that Black teenager Trayvon Martin was shot dead in Florida by a Neighborhood Watch shooter, who was "standing his ground." The publicity led to the film's original title being changed from Neighborhood Watch to The Watch.

Putting that aside, what the film really lacks is any sense of Schaffer's comic strengths. It tries hard to spoof multiple targets -- middle-aged men struggling to regain youthful vitality, suburban angsts, marital differences, big-box stores, alien invasion movies in general -- the overall effect is akin to a sponge, rather that an arrow.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
The film is now streaming on Netflix until August 16. It is also now streaming on Peacock TV.

Andy Samberg stars as the titular singer, a former boy band member, whose solo career begins to flounder. The film was the first to be written and directed by The Lonely Island; directing credits were shared by Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, and it shows.

Writing for Screen Anarchy, film critic Christopher Bourne flat out declared: "I can say with no hyperbole ... the funniest film I've seen this year. ... Popstar very smartly plays to their comic strengths, and doesn't tweak their formula all that much, other than offering a bigger, splashier version of their previous work, with all the curse words and boobs (as well as a penis in a key scene) that they couldn't employ on network television."

Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)
The film is now streaming on Disney Plus.

Andy Samberg and John Mulaney voice the title characters in a live-action/animated comedy. They must reunite 30 years after their TV show ended in order to find a friend who has disappeared.

As with much of the work of Akiva Schaffer, and The Lonely Island as a whole, some of it is quite clever and very funny, even if not everything works. That seems to be the essence of Schaffer's comedy: brash and unapologetic.

Perhaps the most relevant element of this film is that its co-writers, Dan Gregory and Doug Mand, also also credited as co-writers (with Akiva Schaffer) on the new version of The Naked Gun. So take that as encouragement to go see it right away.

Now Streaming celebrates independent and international genre films and television shows that are newly available on legal streaming services.