Lethal Weapon

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Lethal Weapon

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Lethal Weapon

Danny Glover, Darlene Love, Gary Busey, Lycia Naff, Mel Gibson

The first in a series of four Lethal Weapons. Mel Gibson plays an emotionally off-balanced undercover cop. His partner, Danny Glover, is good valued family man. The two opposite personalities become e...( read more  read more... )mbroiled in a series of tense and exciting situations.

Id: 10594855

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Recent Reviews

Lethal Weapon Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    September 24, 2009
    SirPant
    Classic cop/buddy movie that all other cop/buddy movies aspire to. Donner was the best choice for the franchise and It all the better for him directing all 4 films. Written by the brilliant Mr. Black!
  • phubbs1
    July 18, 2009
    phubbs1
    Like 'Beverly Hills Cop' this is one of the all time best buddy cop action flicks. Also like Beverly Hills its kinda aged now but still works well haha I remember these films being classed as nasty adult violent flicks which were on the top shelves of the video shop :) the action...( read more) here is great, no cgi, just real gritty smash ups. It looks good and dirty with the bullets flying by our heroes. The cast are all cool, Busey being really ice cool as the baddie main man, and of course Gibson n Glover hit it of with great dialog. There are some nice set pieces here and great gun battles, the grit beats Beverly Hills sun drenched look actually, and of course, there's Mel's classic mullet haha
  • allan913
    July 16, 2009
    allan913
    A tough, slick, fast and relentless action-thriller. Hard edged and hard boiled fun. It packs plenty of thrills and frequent humor. One wild thrill-ride thats from the begining and dosent stop untill the very end. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are riveting, a pair of heroes that sh...( read more)ine together on screen with humor and intensity. A sharp and smart action-packed rollar-coaster ride.
  • Redlats
    May 20, 2009
    Redlats
    One of the better buddy-cop movies. Gibson is the crazy cop, Glover is the grounded family man, and these two opposites counter each other as they go through enough action to keep you at the edge of your seat for the whole movie.
  • 76Majikat
    May 11, 2009
    76Majikat
    One of those ?talked about, but can?t remember? movies from the 80?s which is my reason for watching this. For me it?s a little bit typical of Hollywood Action in that era, loud, explosive, high body Count and although it?s fairly easy watching, it's not a great storyline.
  • ZakaryasX
    December 19, 2009
    ZakaryasX
    MEL GIBSON AND DANNY GLOVER ARE EXCELLENT IN THIS.
  • sunshine8206
    December 13, 2009
    sunshine8206
    brilliant! totally great, and they didnt get anyworse the more they made - love it
  • raidermatty
    December 4, 2009
    raidermatty
    The Butsh Cassidy,and Sundance Kid of the 80's this Action Opus reinvented the Buddy Cop Action Movie, and no Action Star plays crazy better than Gibson!
  • itbegins2005
    November 30, 2009
    itbegins2005
    Buddy cop movies don't get much better than Lethal Weapon. It didn't invent the genre- T.V. had sort of hatched the idea, with Starsky and Hutch being the earliest example I can think of, if you don't count Dragnet- but it sure as hell perfected it, and everything from its plot s...( read more)tructure to its distinctive score has been imitated so many times that they've entered the the official lexicon of movie cliches. But what it's sometimes hard to remember, following three progressively sunnier, cheerier sequels, is that the first Lethal Weapon was a surprisingly gritty, even edgy film, and, while it was certainly a rollercoaster ride of thrills and excitement, don't get me wrong, the story goes to some pretty dark places before it's all tied up with a bullet-riddled bow. I mean, one character is contemplating suicide for half the film, the other's daughter is kidnapped and nearly raped, and both of them are tortured pretty mercilessly before story's end; but somehow this sardonic sense of almost gallows humor belies all that darkness, making the film tolerable to the viewer, not to mention entertaining (it's the kind of sense of humor I imagine real cops might actually have, just so they can deal with their jobs). Of course, the film's greatest asset is the pairing of Riggs and Murtaugh, two polar opposite cops who are somehow perfectly complimentary to each other because of their dedication to the job- and while that may sound like an umbrella pitch for every shitty buddy-cop flick ever made, that's just because they were all trying to rip off this movie. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover click so harmoniously together as a team- the loose cannon and the straight shooter, the clown and the straight man- that it's just as much fun to see them hating each other for the first half of the movie as it is to see them working together in the second half. Set in L.A. on Christmas (and what was it with setting cop movies on Christmas in the '80s?), Lethal Weapon begins with Sgt. Roger Murtaugh investigating the death of an old friend's daughter. While initially it appears to be a suicide, it soon becomes clear that the girl was murdered- but the who and why are still a mystery. Things get complicated when Murtaugh is assigned a new partner: Sgt. Martin Riggs, a former Special Forces operative transferring from Vice, who may or may not have a death wish following the death of his wife. Riggs and Murtaugh don't work well together at first (Riggs jumps off a building, Murtaugh tells him to just kill himself already, hilarity ensues), but both of them realize that there's more to the girl's death than it seems, and after they work out their differences over dinner with Murtaugh's family and a frosty brew afterwards, the pair unravel an intricate web of drugs and secrets that go back to the Vietnam War. One kidnapping, a drive-by, some torture, and a heck of a body-count later, the day is saved, and the two men forge a bond of respect and friendship that will last them for at least three sequels. Making his first big splash in the world of American cinema is Mel Gibson, whose mullet-sporting Martin Riggs is supposedly such an indisputable badass that he IS the "lethal weapon" of the title. Gibson pushes crazy to some fun new levels, giving new meaning to the term "loose cannon", but it's almost more fun to see him toying with people who expect him to act crazy, throwing on a laid-back, "hey-man-what's-the-big-deal" attitude when people start tip-toeing around him. Still, his temper-tantrums are legendary, and he does bring a lot of- well, if not realism, than emotional investment and energy- to the part. Curbing his enthusiasm, so to speak, is Danny Glover's Roger Murtaugh, an old-school cop with a wife and kids who still wields a six-shooter. Murtaugh is kind of set in his ways and starting to feel like an old man when the movie starts, so being teamed with an unpredictible, potentially-psychotic partner drives his stress levels through the roof (which is why, at some point in every film, he finds an excuse to start screaming "RIGGS!!!", a quote I associate inseperably with Glover now). Together, though, Glover and Gibson just click, and all the comedy in the film comes from their character dynamics- Lethal Weapon would have tanked without these two guys as the leads. The rest of the cast is pretty solid, too- Gary Busey in particular as the inhumanly tough, sadistic Mr. Joshua, whose final battle with Riggs in the mud of Murtaugh's decimated front lawn is a classic action sequence- but make no mistake, this is Glover and Gibson's show, and all the other players are incidental. I like that the script for the first film is tighter than the ones for any of the sequels, and while we know from early on in the movie who the villains actually are, there are some intriguing twists in the film's plot as we learn the whys behind the whodunit opening scene; and the character work is stellar, bringing both men through a distinct arc (though strangely, Murtaugh's arc is all about how he reacts to Riggs, while Riggs' is about not just Murtaugh but his outlook on life). The action in this movie is pretty darn spectacular for 1987, and while it may not hold much of a candle to the preposterous sequences in the sequels to follow, I'm sure the stunt coordinators had their hands full- and it's hard to beat the visceral intensity of Rigg's foot-chase after Mr. Joshua's car, which just had badass written all over it (especially given that Riggs is barefoot and toting a machine gun). The score, as I mentioned, is probably the most iconic part of the movie: composed by Michael Kamen, the score featured the guitar work of Eric Clapton, coupled with the saxophone stylings of David Sanborn (The guitar was used for Riggs' themes, the sax for Murtaugh's). Interestingly, Clapton and Sanborn would become joint composers with Kamen for all of the sequels, as the guitar-and-sax combo proved perfectly emblematic of the style of the film; it's fun and engaging and hard to get out of your head once you hear it. And while the first film might be a little grittier than the later sequels, Lethal Weapon is kind of the same way: two hours of pure entertainment, the kind of movie you can watch again and again because it's just so much fun. It lightly engages you in the whydunit without demanding too much attention to the details, because the point isn't the mystery but the characters, and watching them come to an understanding about each other. It's a difficult dynamic to put into words, so I guess you're just going to have to trust me when I say: Lethal Weapon is a damn good movie. Why do you think it has three friggin' sequels?
  • ythelastman89
    November 28, 2009
    ythelastman89
    The ultimate buddy cop movie. It has a great blend of action and comedy that make it truly amazing. It has incredible chemistry with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The plot is really interesting and is and one of the most well though out for an action movie. It's just incredibly en...( read more)tertaining, charming and most importantly, fun.
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