Grading the Franchise: Lethal Weapon

Grading the Franchise is a recurring feature at Cinecaps Digest where I review an entire film series. Today, it’s the buddy cop action-comedy Lethal Weapon series.

Among straight examples of the buddy cop sub-genre, Lethal Weapon sits in the highest class. The series’ best films (the original and first sequel) are as good as any other of its type, alongside the likes of the original 48 Hrs., the third Die Hard movie, and the first Stakeout. You’ll notice that all of the examples I’ve mentioned so far have a common. denominator beyond the “buddy cop” label—they all have their own sequels and/or entire franchises. That’s because, as Hollywood knows, if it worked once, it’ll work a second time, and as long as it’s profitable, it’ll work a third time, a fourth time…

I doubt I need to describe the premise to you. It’s your classic mismatched cop partner pairing: aging stable family man who plays by the rules and is pondering retirement, younger wild card who has a death wish and thinks rules are meant to be broken. Put them on the trail of some seriously nasty bad guys and watch ’em do their thing. The title referred to the fact that one of the partners is suicidal, and with nothing to live for, he attacks his job with the kind of insane relish that might receive a withering glare of disgust from Dirty Harry, the ultimate loose cannon for the right-wing fascist arm of police justice.

The franchise got a little softer and flabbier as it went on, cluttered by recurring characters and an overemphasis on the concept of “found family”. The crazy partner finding that family altered the buddy cop dynamic, but at least for one additional movie, the banter/rapport still worked gangbusters. Richad Donner is an accomplished (if not virtuoso) director of action, and his delivery of violence, stunts and special effects was always satisfactory, sometimes more so. The one-liners provided by Shane Black and Jeffrey Boam were consistently funny, with a few bits even entering the lexicon of stories of its type, starting with Danny Glover’s impeccably exhausted delivery of, “I’m getting too old for this sh–.”

It was the casting of the lead actors and the chemistry they shared that put it over the top, however. No matter what you think of Mel Gibson as a human being, you have to admit, he was cast flawlessly for this role, feeding off his two biggest strengths as an actor: his natural comic gifts and his ability to seem like the craziest, most intense person in the room. Then there’s Danny Glover, who was always a little sly and unpredictable as a dramatic performer, being very self-aware as the supposedly rock steady member of the duo pushed to exasperation by his partner’s unpredictable, dangerous antics. When they got chummier and Gibson’s lunatic found reasons to live again, they still bickered and teased each other relentlessly without becoming clownish…for a while.

As previously hinted at, the later two films aren’t as successful as the first two, and the goodwill of the buddy-cop partnership can only carry the stock elements so far. I normally complain when movies follow formulas in Cinecaps reviews, but that only means they’re following the formulas poorly. The first two Lethal Weapon movies offer up precious few surprises, but they do what they need to do quite well. Some over-the-top mayhem, a string of laughs, a spark between the main characters, bad guys you want to see get it good in the end… See, kids, in the 80s and 90s, that’s what you wanted in your action movies; none of this wall-to-wall CGI or superheroes in tights or crossover/multiverse nonsense. Just Gary Busey burning his arm with a cigarette lighter and Danny Glover getting extra vulnerable on a bomb-rigged toilet and Al Leong making his customary token appearance in an 80s action movie torturing Mel Gibson and motor-mouthed Joe Pesci complaining about how “they f— you at the drive-thru.”

We had it good back then. When I look at what we’ve been getting, buddy-cop movie-wise, in the last decade or so (Hot Pursuit, Bright, two Ride Along movies, and two more Bad Boys pictures), I just think: I’m getting too old for this sh–.

Lethal Weapon (1987)

Directed by Richard Donner. Starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Mitchell Ryan, Darlene Love, Tom Atkins, Traci Wolfe, Steve Kahan. [R]

Murtaugh (Glover), a stable, aging family man detective with the LAPD is partnered up with Riggs (Gibson), a crazed, suicidal loose cannon, in this slick, violent buddy cop pic, a staple of the subgenre. Action scenes are handled with skillful efficiency, but it’s the pop in Shane Black’s dialogue and the dynamic rapport between the leads that make it a cut above the commercially-contrived ilk. The antagonists are standard in design—just your typical scummy heroin smugglers—but they get played up for their sadistic traits by Mitchell Ryan and Gary Busey, who (briefly) made a career out of scenery-chewing baddies off his work here. Best scenes include Riggs getting a building jumper down in one piece, Riggs having dinner with the Murtaugh clan (the teenage daughter immediately gets a crush on the guest), and a series of ruthless showdowns in the final third that toss credulity to the curb for the sake of an exciting show. If only there was more of a plot or purpose to all the well-executed mayhem and banter. The bluesy sax heard on the soundtrack, credited to Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton, would emerge as a signature element for the film and its imitators. Followed by three sequels and a TV series. Director’s cut includes excised scenes like Riggs confronting a crazed sniper and, later, inviting a call girl back to his place to watch The Three Stooges.

79/100

Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

Directed by Richard Donner. Starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Joss Ackland, Derrick O’Connor, Patsy Kensit, Darlene Love, Steve Kahan, Tricia Wolfe. [R]

Dynamite sequel delivers (and exceeds) on expectations for bigger action and funnier comedy; the aura of diminished retread returns can only be felt in the softening of the buddy cop premise because, until the final vengeful half hour, the first chapter’s “lethal weapon”—ready-for-death maverick cop, Martin Riggs—is more of a jokester lunatic this time, one with a reason to live now that he has an adoptive family with partner Roger Murtaugh. The two cops square off against a gang of repellent, racist South African drug dealers hiding behind diplomatic immunity, and while the film’s anti-apartheid drive isn’t used solely as wallpaper to make the good guys “gooder” and bad guys “badder”, it’s used primarily as fuel for the fire leading to the enemy’s ruthless destruction. In the absence of fresh relationships and engrossing plotting, fast-talking pipsqueak Leo Getz (Pesci) is added, an irritating but frequently funny government witness being “babysat” by Riggs and Murtaugh who, as incredulous luck would have it, is testifying against the scumbags the cops tangled with during the opening chase scene. Aside from a satisfying post-mortem one-liner (“It’s just been revoked”), the final fight can’t live up to what came before it, including a toilet bombing and the demolition of a house on stilts, but as one might say, the rest is so fun, it makes you wanna go out and buy rubbers. Fans of Aliens will be pleased to see Vazquez and Drake together again…although the two actors, Jenette Goldstein and Mark Rolston, share no scenes together (and like Aliens, neither makes it out alive).Shane Black earned story credit for his original treatment, which was rewritten almost entirely by Jeffrey Boam.

81/100

Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)

Directed by Richard Donner. Starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Rene Russo, Joe Pesci, Stuart Wilson, Steve Kahan, Darlene Love, Tricia Wolfe, Gregory Miller, Delores Hall. [R]

Third entry in the buddy action-comedy series finds Riggs and Murtaugh tangling with a dirty cop turned arms dealer (Wilson). Riggs gets a love interest in a roundhouse-kicking Internal Affairs officer (Russo), Murtaugh gets upset when he shoots his son’s gang-banging friend in the line of duty, and Joe Pesci’s Leo Getz returns to the fold without good reason (he barely serves a function whatsoever in the plot) but with a platinum blonde dye-job. Ever so briefly, it looked like the filmmakers were going for a role-reversal thing with Murtaugh being the one to go over the edge on a rampage, driven by the scumbags filling the streets with guns—not the freshest gimmick around to revitalize a franchise, but still something bolder than just more of the same, which this turns out to be. Indeed, it’s just a plug-and-play sequel, with our favorite bickering cops dropped into a generic police-action story adorned with a few too many clichés (e.g., you immediately know the young rookie cop introduced briefly in the first half is only going to come back later on so he can tragically die). Russo is a welcome addition, and her scene comparing “battle scars” with Gibson is one of the best bits. The main villain, however, is the weakest the series has yet produced, more the fault of the formula writing than Wilson’s efforts; he has no direct interaction with either lead until the very end, so when the baddie mutters, “Go to hell, Riggs,” after scrapping with Gibson, I wasn’t sure if the guy should’ve even known the hero’s name. A considerable step down in quality from the first two outings, but most fans will find it to be a satisfactory diversion. Jack McGee reprises his minor role from the first sequel as a contractor, this time fixing up Riggs’ destroyed beachside home.

56/100

Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)

Directed by Richard Donner. Starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Chris Rock, Rene Russo, Jet Li, Joe Pesci, Steve Kahan, Kim Chan, Darlene Love, Traci Wolfe, Eddie Ko, Calvin Jung. [R]

Tempting as it is to say the well has run dry on the once-entertaining action franchise, it’s more a matter of the edge going completely dull, even with Jet Li on hand as a new merciless and lightning-fast adversary. It’s a Chinese immigrant smuggling ring that Riggs and Murtaugh fight this time, but the cops-vs.-crooks storyline practically takes a backseat to a flood of limp subplots, and when the violence isn’t pumping off the screen, all that “down time” is mostly recycled bantering and cuddliness, with Riggs and Lorna having a baby and thinking about marriage, Murtaugh’s daughter being pregnant as well, and Leo Getz—yes, Leo Getz—getting all emotional about the “family ties” he’s built with these wacky cops. There’s no reason for Pesci to even be here, and we didn’t need the addition of Chris Rock as the young cop who’s secretly the father of Murtaugh’s grandkid-to-be, but Murtaugh thinks he has the hots for him (what a tired series of jokes those are…). The jokes are anemic or off-key throughout, with most of Rock’s dialogue just sounding like stand up routines being worked out in the clubs, and a surprising amount of racist insults (“flied lice”) getting casually tossed around. Similarly lazy is the way exposition and plot points are dropped in the middle of action scenes as if the filmmakers were afraid that neither the story nor the chases/shoot-outs were interesting enough on their own. Did they ever stop to ask themselves if people buying tickets to a Lethal Weapon movie really want an extended epilogue with multiple hospital births and misty-eyed “extended family” chatter? An over-the-top freeway chase and a decent final fight where Li takes on Gibson and Glover at the same time are the highlights in a film starved for reasons to exist beyond money. Note: screenwriter Channing Gibson is not related to Mel.

42/100

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