By Geno McGahee
The 1980s was the best time for action films. In 1987, LETHAL WEAPON was released and it would go on to spawn three sequels and made Mel Gibson a household name. This film combined the elements that the action fans wanted and mixed it with some humor and a mullet that is difficult to forget. A great cast and explosive approach made LETHAL WEAPON a standout and stands the test of time.
Detective Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is a family man and is assigned a new partner. Detective Riggs (Mel Gibson) comes to the department with a lot of baggage. He is considered crazy and suicidal and also walks around naked in his trailer while his dog watches on. That poor dog. I can imagine that dog thinking “put on some fucking pants” as Riggs walks around bare-assed. I think they did this to get the chicks into the theaters. Come to the movies and see Mel Gibson’s ass big screen. If they did it now, it would be 3-D, but it would have been a CGI ass and nobody gets excited over a CGI ass.
Amanda Hunsaker (Jackie Swanson) jumps to her death from a high rise and crashes on top of a vehicle. This was very popular in the eighties. We saw it in DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN and in LOOKER and you cannot go wrong with it. When Murtaugh goes to investigate, he realizes that the girl is the daughter of his longtime friend, Michael (Tom Atkins). He goes to visit him and it turns out that his daughter was involved in porn videos and drugs, but there is more to the story than meets the eye. Michael is involved in some very bad stuff. He is tied in with the General (Mitchell Ryan) and he has some mercenaries that do his bidding, including Joshua (Gary Busey) and Endo (Al Leong).
The odd couple detective team has a difficult time clicking and it gets worse when they encounter a potential suicide jumper. Riggs climbs on the ledge with him and tries to talk him down, but he quickly grabs the guy’s arm and handcuffs himself to him. Riggs insane side appears as he jumps, propelling the suicide jumper down with him onto a huge inflatable rescue cushion. Murtaugh has enough and demands that the suicidal detective prove that he really wants to kill himself and, with a gun to his head, Riggs pulls the trigger, but Murtaugh stops it from going off. He now knows that he is serious about killing himself and backs off. He has that look that screams “I bet he walks around naked in front of his dog too.”
Murtaugh and Riggs begin to see that Michael knows more and they go to visit him as he drinks egg nog. A helicopter appears and Joshua shoots a hole through Michael and egg nog goes everywhere. That’s why they included the egg nog. It looked cooler with it. Riggs tries to kill Joshua but he gets away and now we have a showdown set between Riggs and Joshua and you can’t go wrong. Gary Busey and Mel Gibson, two of the best over-actors in history, going at it is a match made in heaven.
The bad guys kidnap Murtaugh’s daughter, Rianne (Traci Wolfe), and now the odd couple must infiltrate bad guy headquarters to get her back. At one point, Endo and Joshua tie up Riggs and shock him over and over again. Has Al Leong ever played a good guy? He was a dick here and he was a dick in DIE HARD, but he makes a good goon. So it sort of works out. In the meantime, Murtaugh is being tortured and his daughter is dragged around in her nighty with the General threatening murder, rape, walking around naked in front of dogs, and all sorts of other terrible things.
Riggs and Murtaugh recoup and take down the bad guys and save the day, becoming good friends and showing Riggs that life is worth living. LETHAL WEAPON was a huge hit and rightfully so. The deck was stacked from the beginning. Shane Black wrote it and he would go on to write THE LAST BOYSCOUT and LAST ACTION HERO. I don’t care what anyone says. LAST ACTION HERO was a good movie. Richard Donner directed and his track record is amazing, including directing THE OMEN, SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN II (the good version). The cast was very stellar and it held true to the action formula while bringing its own vibe to the genre.
LETHAL WEAPON is a winner, outside of Gibson’s terrible Three Stooges impressions. Why the fuck did they keep doing that throughout the series? Am I the only one that didn’t find his impression of the stooges funny?
Rating: 8/10
