In my early teens, I saw this movie come on one of the premium channels and I had heard of the title before as being a famous movie and I'll never forget that chilling opening scene with the charming Jingle Bell Rock intro.
What happened next was years of appreciation for the Lethal Weapon movies. I won't get into Gibson's controversies or film-making or the TV series here, but I am truly hoping to find some fellow fans of these movies. My cousin and I's bond owes a considerable part to these movies. I still remember the description for the first sequel being "this struck moviegoers as being arguably better than the original", praise that is rare for a sequel to achieve, as in Terminator 2 or A L I E N S.
Richard Donner, ladies and gents, and Shane Black--*applauds*--the perfect buddy cop characters. Arguably Gibson's best character, the tragic widower Riggs with suicidal tendencies and bad-ass moves.
My favorite memory is 1) watching all four movies with my cousin and the emergence of several inside jokes because of it that still make us crack up to this day (he's 25, I'm 29 now). He's Riggs (he has long hair) and I'm Murtaugh (more composed) apparently, plus me being older. Second favorite memory would be finding all four VHS copies at the local flea market in my hometown once upon a time, and not only all four, but the director's cuts for all four, which include lots of fun scenes and more graphic martial arts/violence.
Least favorite memory would be my disappointment in Lethal Weapon 3, despite it having what is probably my favorite scene (the boat scene where Riggs tells Rog what their bond means to him), as I was very intrigued by a good cop gone bad (Jack Travis). I did like the more mature themes and less heavy elements of LW2, even though humor began to bleed too much into these movies. Without a doubt, #1 & #2 are darker and more serious films.
I'd rank them LW > LW2 > LW4 > LW3, as I really do love the settling-down themes of 4 and it's more of a fun movie despite some nice sequences in 3. 2 has one of the best reveals ever, IMO. Please submit your own rankings, too. Perfect end to a franchise, IMO. The final fight in LW4 is great and brutal, though I wish Riggs had done a bit more (but given his age makes sense) martial arts as that was a big part of his character in 1 & 2. Even 3 lost sight of that, somewhat in the fight scenes.
In closing as I open this up for discussion, here's a tribute music video I made for the franchise, which is one of my favorites. Who saw these movies when they first came out? I'd also say that 3 gets too gushy romance-y, dampening the film more. I love Clapton's score, also. Great pathos and overall just good stuff.
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"They knew and they let it happen! To kids!"-Spotlight
https://tinyurl.com/ruffalospotlight
"They knew and they let it happen! To kids!"-Spotlight
https://tinyurl.com/ruffalospotlight