National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)

Were it not for Samuel L. Jackson's uncanny ability to give gravitas to just about everything he says, the vast majority of this film would be a wash. As one of the last legitimately notable National Lampoon films before they sunk into remaking the same sex-comedy over and over again, Loaded Weapon offers up a fair number of laughs. Each little bit of it does it's dead-level best to bring in that same level of Zucker Brothers zaniness, with a lot of whiplash inducing slapstick. Sometimes it works. The casting is laid on nice and thick too, with everyone from Corey Feldman to William Shatner eating some screentime. But it all comes back to Jackson, and his flavor of deadpan that's hard not to mistake for something far more serious. It isn't anything anyone will mistake for a classic, but for a bit of low-rent screwball comedy, you could do much worse.

6 out of 10.