Sequels are historically not a good thing. See, a story is a complete object in itself. It has a beginning, a middle and an end, so unless you deliberately wrote a story to be featured in three volumes (i.e. Lord of the Rings, the original Star Wars), writing a sequel often is a losing bet *. Re-opening a great story to insert new data is a good way to handicap its quality. The Lethal Weapon franchise might just be the exception to this rule. The original chapter was a lot of fun, yet it was as flawed as it gets. The good idea here was to take what people liked about the first and build a movie around that. LETHAL WEAPON 2 is dynamic, fun and far beyond the point of no return. Owning up to your lesser aspects can play in your favor.
LETHAL WEAPON 2 opens up not where you would expect it, but where you'd want it to : in the heat of a wacky pursuit. Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Murtaugh (Danny Glover) are chasing a blond thug down the highway, yelling and bickering under the stress. When they finally get their man, they discover a trunk full of krugerrrands, South African dollars, in his vehicle.The lead directs them to the South African embassy, a country still then torn by apartheid. Diplomat Arjun Rudd (Joss Ackland) uses his immunity to send Riggs and Murtaugh packing, but it's underestimating Martin Riggs to think he will accept the bad guy's ruling. What would have been a petty, system-related frustration for normal officers suddenly becomes a death match.
Director Richard Donner understood a valuable lesson from the first LETHAL WEAPON : don't get in the way. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, when sharing the frame, are good enough to carry the weight of the movie. Lots has been said about the franchise slowly drifting into comedic territory, but it's good at it. The comedic timing of Danny Glover is often underrated. There is a memorable scene where the entire Murtaugh family (plus Riggs) is sitting in the living room, watching the first commercial of the Sergeant's older daughter Rianne (Traci Wolfe) and this scene wouldn't have been such a success without Glover's slapstick talent. That scene would have been in a silent movie, it would have been as funny in a silent movie because of what Glover brings to it. Comedy and chemistry between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are starting to override storytelling elements in LETHAL WEAPON 2.
Now with more mullets and more guns.
Let me tell you about an all-time Lethal Weapon pet peeve of mine : Leo Getz. Don't get me wrong, I fucking love Joe Pesci. He is a tremendous actor with an underrated emotional range. He's just playing a useless part here. Leo Getz adds nothing to the Lethal Weapon movies. His involvement stands somewhere between annoying filler and comedic relief. He is somewhat involved in the storyline in LETHAL WEAPON 2, but a good editing hand would've killer off that character. He bugs me a lot more than the carboard baddies. At least in LETHAL WEAPON 2, the bad guys aren't really trying to make a serious point. They're just evil. Aging cast a fascinating light on them also, as the movie was shot five years before the liberation of South Africa by Nelson Mandela.
LETHAL WEAPON 2 is a strangely similar movie to its predecessor, except that it has matured and assumes its identity with more confidence. I'm not the biggest guys on ''popcorn movies'' as I have a difficult time not watching films viscerally, but the week night DVD thing suits the Lethal Weapon franchise well. I will never really take Riggs and Murtaugh seriously, but as they stop taking their own selves seriously, I can live with them and appreciate them for who they are. There is a debate going on as whether the Lethal Weapon films work best as an action film or a comedy. They work best with both elements here, but it's a franchise that found its balance in not taking itself seriously.
* I know the argument, OK? The Godfather 2 is better than the original Godather and I agree. But if you've read the book, you know that most of the movie sequel is included in the original novel.