The trailer for the Netflix original film “Naked” was released to Netflix’s YouTube channel on July 14.
Despite having a decent cast, the Netflix original film “Naked,” released Aug. 11, is full of untapped potential, making it feel quite lacking — almost “naked.”
A man stuck in a time loop wakes up naked in an elevator on his wedding day… sounds like the start of a bad joke, right? Well, it’s actually the start of many.
The Netflix original film “Naked”, starring Marlon Wayans, was released to the streaming service on Aug. 11. The film is an adaptation of a 2000 independent Swedish film titled “Naken,” which is even worse than the Netflix comedy venture.
In the film, Rob Anderson (Wayans), a slack substitute teacher, is set to marry his much-more-successful fiancée Megan (Regina Hall), but things become complicated when he finds himself trapped in an elevator on his wedding day without a stitch on.
Anderson is met with various challenges on his quest to set his wedding day right, including impressing his soon-to-be father-in-law (Dennis Haysbert), fighting his fiancée’s former lover (Scott Foley), and most importantly, finding something to wear.
The plot does absolutely no justice to the “Groundhog Day” concept, and the jokes aren’t likely to garner many laughs. Very few moments felt genuinely funny and displayed Wayas’ talent, such as when Anderson discovered the fastest way from the elevator to the chapel was by ambulance, and then repeatedly injured himself.
Additionally, the film lasts far too long for what it is. The 96-minute runtime feels more like 96 hours — as soon as it feels like an ending is building up, something happens to steer the film in a new direction.
“Naked” is the kind of movie to watch once, maybe enjoy it a little bit in the moment, and then realize how bad it really was. If the effort put into the film had been concentrated into a 30-minute short film, it would’ve been much more worthwhile.
“Naked” is available to stream on Netflix.
