"The Naked Gun 2:The Smell Of Fear" 1991

“The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear”

I have vivid memories of the night my husband I went to see this movie. We had gone on a road trip without our child. When he was small we tried to have a weekend to ourselves every six months or so. It is marriage investment time. We were traveling south and had intended to have one more night before meeting his parents at his grandma’s house. We hadn’t made a hotel reservation figuring we’d find something along the way.

We got to a small town and were getting tired and hungry. We started stopping at hotels and motels trying to find a room for the night. There were none to be had. There was a Harley convention in town and they were booked up. We stopped at a place that had a vacancy sign and it was a small family owned place. We went to the door and asked the man about a room. He started to quiz us on our marital status and going on and on about not renting to sinners. We explained we were married. His only room was in a cabin and a little out of our budget so we ventured on losing hope.

Finally we stopped at a kind of seedy looking motel. The pair behind the counter didn’t speak much English beyond the fact that a room was available and only $40 a night. We passed over the money and got our key. As we were walking to the second story with our bags a woman who we believe worked out of her motel room came out the door and leaned over the railing. She was making offers to the fishermen sitting in the parking lot in their boat.

The fishermen were cleaning their catch of the day and throwing the bones and guts over the edge of the boat into the parking lot. In the summer. On a very warm day. It was lovely.

We got to the room.

Oh the humanity.

It was horrible. I was afraid to take my shoes off.

We quickly decided that we should get some dinner before it was too late. We headed to the main street and found an Italian restaurant. The food was pretty good and the service was prompt. But it left us with a lot of time. After dinner, not wanting to retire to the room that Satan rented out, we cruised town. As we passed the little movie theater we saw it was showing “The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear”. Being big fans of the first one we immediately went to see it.

It was a pleasant place to spend a couple hours.

After the movie it was almost midnight. We got back to the room and with more than a little fear we pulled back the sheets hoping that nothing was there. We slept fitfully and finally got up and checked out at five AM.

Since that fateful night we have ALWAYS made reservations.

Lesson learned. And the movie was pretty good too.