TheRetroCritic

A whopping 6 years after Lethal Weapon 3 , we somehow got another sequel to the iconic buddy cop action franchise starring Mel Gibson as loose cannon Martin Riggs and Danny Glover as Roger "Too Old For This Shit" Murtaugh. A little older but not much wiser, the LAPD duo are still taking on bad guys in the streets in the most destructive and explosive ways possible but now, with Riggs' girlfriend Lorna (Rene Russo) and Murtaugh's daughter being pregnant, they're having to consider their age and their future. On top of that, you've got a Chinese immigrant smuggling ring being exposed which builds into a money laundering masterplan led by Jet Li's intimidating villain. And, of course, Leo (Joe Pesci) is thrown in there for added comic relief, as if having Chris Rock fast-talking his way through some of his leftover stand-up routines wasn't enough. It's a bit of a bloated, unfocused script and one wishes that some of it had been edited out or poli

Having proven themselves to be an action movie duo worth sticking around for, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover joined forces again for Lethal Weapon 3 in 1992 and the film did reliably well at the box-office but how did the film compare to the franchise's previous two outings? It's easy to forget how serious in tone the first Lethal Weapon was, with Martin Riggs (Gibson) having suicidal tendencies and all, but if you were to skip the sequel and watch this third instalment right after the original you'd probably think you had somehow stumbled onto a live-action cartoon version of Shane Black's cop movie classic by mistake. Indeed, while Lethal Weapon 2 pushed the comedy aspect of the two main characters' unlikely friendship a tad more, this movie is mostly a straight-up lolfest with the exception of a couple of more emotional scenes. By giving Joe Pesci's mouthy informant/real estate agent Leo more screen-time, the film runs the risk of turning the character in

After the box-office hit that was Lethal Weapon , Richard Donner came back to direct this sequel which, of course, once again starred Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as mismatched buddy cops Riggs and Murtaugh. This time, the duo face off against a group of South African drug dealers seemingly untouchable due to their diplomatic immunity claims. The film is much lighter than the original in tone at first with a focus on car chases and our main guys interacting like an old married couple, as ever. There's much less of a spotlight on Riggs' suicidal tendencies this time but his late wife's murder eventually comes into play later on in the film, leading us to a surprisingly dark but rewarding denouement. Murtaugh has a lot to deal with in this movie in that pretty much everything that happens to him sees him become the laughing stock of the force: whether it's his daughter starring in a condom commercial or sitting on a toilet bomb. Riggs is given a new love interest in P

Check out my review of NES game   Lethal Weapon   over at retro gaming super-site  1MoreCastle !

One year before Die Hard , a little film called Lethal Weapon came out and gave us a solid mix of 80's cop action and Christmas spirit. The film spawned several sequels, of course, and became one of the action franchises to follow. But how does the very first film hold up? Probably the darkest film in the franchise, Lethal Weapon focuses more on Riggs' (Mel Gibson) depression and Murtaugh's (Danny Glover) family life than the actual crime plot at hand, which almost feels like a subplot at times. The villains, Gary Busey's Joshua, a tough ex-army guy turned ruthless killer, and Mitch Ryan's General do pop up now and then, offering the odd action beat but all in all, this first film is more of a character piece about the slow building of an unlikely friendship. A lot of emphasis is put on Riggs' suicidal state following the death of his wife as we see him get dangerously close to killing himself and almost jeopardising various cases. Luckily, he's