Apparently, a common sign of greatness is not knowing when to stop. Muhammad Ali fought Trevor Berbick, Gordie Howe played hockey until his fifties (and one professional shift at a whopping 69 years old!), the New Kids on the Block have reformed and release albums for the last five years and, well, LETHAL WEAPON 4 was made. It's not a disaster, yet it's not a succesful film either. It's forever stuck in the limbo of mediocrity of ideas that outstayed their welcome. Fortunately, it became the official conclusion of the series. That, until a diabolical Hollywood producer decides to reopen its corpse and squeeze a few more dollars out of it. Let's hope it doesn't happen.
Soooooo.....Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and unfortunately Leo Getz (Joe Pesci) have unexplainably went shark hunting one night, just for the hell of it, and given their incredible luck, they stumble upon a Chinese tanker full of illegal immigrants on the shores of L.A. Murtaugh and his big heart decides to spare some of them the living hell of going through the system and takes them home. The Chinese family clue the two supercops on the trail of a very powerful triad mobster and Kung Fu practicioner (Jet Li). That guy is one angry Chinese cliché on a mission and this mission is to bust his brother out of American jail.
LETHAL WEAPON 4 is the most self-aware movie of the franchise. Also, for some reason, it wants to make people laugh. Its jokes are more and more visual, which the movie announces with the not subtle, yet slightly funny comedic introduction. That's the bizarre thing about LEHTAL WEAPON 4, the jokes are somewhat genuinely funny, yet they are so overblown they become awkward. The nitrous oxide joke, for example, is a good idea, but it goes on and on until it becomes what I call a ''length'', a scene that pauses your interest in a movie and has you wishing another scene would start.
On top of being an evil asshole, Kung Fu Champion is cocky as hell.
A small, dark part of me believes LETHAL WEAPON 4 wasn't supposed to be about Chinese mobsters (or maybe not supposed to be), but it ended up being built for being Jet Li's big American breakout hit. The unnecessary displays of acrobatic martial arts are kind of awesome, yet completely out of place. Li seems to be acting in one movie, while the rest of the crew (which is still on tight-knit group) are acting in their own. Chinese immigration and triads are (or maybe were, what do I know) a subject of actuality on the West Coast though, so the choice of bad guys is understandable. I just wished, you know, that they could have been less of a walking cliché. I'm sure there is something else to Chinese immigrants than martial arts, dry cleaners and organized crime. I know it's a silly complaint given the nature of the series (and especially the nature of bad guys), but I suppose it's wearing thin on me.
If the existence of the Lethal Weapon movies proved a point, it's that you can get away with being sloppy if you're energetic enough. At least, for a certain amount of time. It also proves that every idea can die if it is exploited ruthlessly. LETHAL WEAPON 4 is a friendly, edulcorated version of his own self. There are elements of what made it originally appealing, yet they seem tame and distant if you have seen the previous installments in the franchise. Riggs and Murtaugh walked into the sunset barely avoiding making fool of themselves. Let the Lethal Weapon movies be a hyperadrenalized anomaly in the Hollywoodian landscape. They are what they are and they need to be left as is and if you want to skip LETHAL WEAPON 4 and still pretend it's a trilogy, I'm fine with it.