Lethal Weapon
| Year: | 1987 |
| Director: | Richard Donner |
| Cast: | Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey |
The original in the iconic series that drew so many flashy cop movie cliches together - the good cop bad cop duality, the psycho loner who does things his own way, and the coolest mullet to ever appear in movies.
Also a different template to the way the series ended up. To an extent, Weapon 4 got back to the predominantly action roots, but by the time of part 3, the franchise had descended to corny slapstick action comedy.
The premise is that Riggs, a dangerously skilled but bad-living cop, balances Murtaugh's (Glover) family-man good cop. The plot is a reason to bring the two together in one of the 80s' most symbolic movies, along with Top Gun and Wall Street.
The plot is a haze after this long - the same as a million other cop movies - but it concerns a super fistfighting villain (an understated Gary Busey) who provides an appropriate nemesis to Riggs (Gibson).
The action is exciting enough and you can see the (soon to be fully fledged) comedy simmering under the surface.
Lots of set-ups make Riggs look good (charging on foot down a busy highway, emptying his gun at a fleeing helicopter and reloading it to try again), but it occasionally backfires. Having Murtaugh try to hold the police back just so Riggs can have his climactic fight with the villain is plain ridiculous.
Also a different template to the way the series ended up. To an extent, Weapon 4 got back to the predominantly action roots, but by the time of part 3, the franchise had descended to corny slapstick action comedy.
The premise is that Riggs, a dangerously skilled but bad-living cop, balances Murtaugh's (Glover) family-man good cop. The plot is a reason to bring the two together in one of the 80s' most symbolic movies, along with Top Gun and Wall Street.
The plot is a haze after this long - the same as a million other cop movies - but it concerns a super fistfighting villain (an understated Gary Busey) who provides an appropriate nemesis to Riggs (Gibson).
The action is exciting enough and you can see the (soon to be fully fledged) comedy simmering under the surface.
Lots of set-ups make Riggs look good (charging on foot down a busy highway, emptying his gun at a fleeing helicopter and reloading it to try again), but it occasionally backfires. Having Murtaugh try to hold the police back just so Riggs can have his climactic fight with the villain is plain ridiculous.