LETHAL WEAPON and its sequels were an abstraction to me during my teenage years. I think they were just a little too adult and came a little too early for me, so I ended up watching segments of all four installments but never one full movie. Let's just say, this is not a problem anymore. The iconic buddy cop movie sure has a decent sense of humor and director Richard Donner has a real talent for filming action scenes. Force is to admit, though, it had subpar storytelling (even compared to other action movies of its era) and it didn't age as gracefully as some other ass kicking flicks have.
When watching LETHAL WEAPON, it's important that it's, first and foremost, the story of an unlikely friendship. All the other variables are subjugated to making its buddy cop protagonists look cool. Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is still reeling from the death of his wife and has become suicidal. Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is an older cop, more stable cop, with a beautiful family and stay-at-home habits. Their newfound partnership unleashes absolute chaos on the streets of Los Angeles. They stumble upon a major drug case that happens to give Riggs a new reason to live.
The subpar storyteling in the LETHAL WEAPON franchise seems to be stemming from one particular variable : the bad guys. They are super violent, omnipotent and do things without reason. It happens often in the series that helicopters pop out of nowhere. Sometimes it's several helicopters. It never struck the writing team that you need an obscene amount of money and a tragic lack of subtlety to use choppers in drug operations like that.
One scene that was specific to LETHAL WEAPON was that the drug smuggling crew kidnaps Riggs and Murtaugh and tortures them to ''see what they know'' about them, but it serves no purpose whatsoever. They should really just have attempted on their lives, because now that they torture them, they gave Riggs and Murtaugh a reason to arrest them? The bad guys of screenwriter Shane Black don't seem to have any sort of rational boundaries. They're out to destroy whatever is in their way. I'll admit it has an appeal of some sort, but makes the story very thin at times. All Riggs and Murtaugh have to do, really, is to chase down the nutcases that are wrecking everything in town. The films offers no real narrative challenge to the characters, except maybe for Riggs to make peace with his wife's death, which he doesn't really do?
That, ladies and gentlemen, is a great fucking mullet.
While it's not unfair to judge LETHAL WEAPON on its storyline, we would be leaving out a vital aspect : action scenes. There is a killer pursuit scene following the kidnapping scene, where Riggs and Murtaugh chase Gary Busey through Los Angeles. It's mindless and magical. Mel Gibson's mullet is flapping in the wind, Danny Glover huffs and puffs and preys god, Busey looks insane (as usual), metal twists and bend and Los Angeles burns. LETHAL WEAPON seems to not give much thoughts to anything, (Riggs recklessly shoots a sniper and shuts down a drug operation the same day!) if it looks cool, it'll be film. It both works for and against the movie.
LETHAL WEAPON is charming at times, has a funny, warped take on fight scenes and masculine badassery in general, yet doesn't quite stands out next to the action blockbusters of its era. It's accessible, sure, but it's not a great story. The characters are intriguing and have a lot of potential, yet the cases they're dealt don't do them justice. They battle evil fuckers and that's it. They go home. It's a comforting thought, but drama-wise, it's a little flat for an era where action heroes were larger than life.. In the same genre, the BEVERLY HILLS COP franchise is funnier, has better narrative structure and had an Eddie Murphy in tip-top shape. BUT...it didn't have that stupendous mullet, infinite source of wonder, laughter and action.
