“Brevity is the soul of wit,” and “The Naked Gun” reboot starring Liam-Neeson-not-Leslie-Nielsen passes by in 85 minutes, credits to credits. So, “Mission: Accomplished?”

Alas, there are maybe 20 minutes worth of jokes, sight-gags, slapstick bits and innuendo in those 85 minutes. An honest review reaching for brevity could be as short as “All the funny bits are in the trailers.”

But Neeson seemed like an inspired piece of casting — an Irish bruiser who has become the AARP tough guy for his generation of screen stars. He’s paired up with Pamela Anderson, and they click on camera and off, if the buzz is to be believed. Danny Huston, playing the messianic Muskish oligarch heavy, seems genuinely wrong-footed by every stupid thing said to him by any other character.

“Do you mind if I speak freely?”

“I prefer English.”

One doesn’t appreciate how hard it is to write these movies, and the “Scary Movie” parodies that they inspired, until you run into one that doesn’t play. You throw a lot of gags at the wall and hope enough stick to make the picture pay off. Here, they only threw enough to make the effort seem half-hearted.

But as we grin at the mind-altering gadget at the heart of the story, the “P.L.O.T. Device,” as we chuckle at a last sight-gag written in script on the side of a police cruiser — “To Warm and Serve,” and note the weeping children shoved through the Police Squad precint by a cop holding their lemonade stand sign in his hands, and grimace at the widely acknowledged truth spoken in jest — “Since when do cops have to follow the law?” the thought does occur that maybe these movies ended at the right time — decades ago.

The laughs are harder to come by, the earnestness harder to fake.

Everything about this feels played. And the legions of seniors who keep “Cops are always right” shows like “Blue Bloods” and the endless image-burnishing BS of the Dick Wolf stable of “Law & F.B.I. & Chicago P.D.” programs and their spinoffs on the air don’t go to the movies. The boilerplate procedurals of this generation are beyond parody.

Love Neeson, and mazeltov to him and Anderson, but there’s a reason he doesn’t land a lot of comedies. CCH Pounder as the “chief,” hounding her lawless minions to police by the rules and Huston are casting coups.

But nobody has enough funny things to say or do, and supporting players Paul Walter Hauser and Kevin Duran, the bleached-blond henchman of the oligarch, are just place-holder players here.

Once you’ve seen Neeson is a too-short schoolgirl’s skirt stabbing a bank robber with a lolipop, you’ve gotten the joke. It’s a pity that tried to make a whole movie to go with that trailer.

Rating: PG-13, violence, innuendo, profanity

Cast: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand, CCH Pounder and Danny Huston

Credits: Directed by Akiva Shaffer, scripted by Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Akiva Shaffer, based on the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker TV series “Police Squad.” A Paramount release.

Running time: 1:25