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Lethal Weapon 3


Lethal Weapon 3

Richard Donner, 1992



I had seen the original Lethal Weapon, but not the second film, although it looks like I missed absolutely nothing. I give the first film three out of five, and at the time I would consider that pretty generous. It is by no means great, but I was willing to forgive some of the film’s weaker points and sit back and enjoy the ‘cheesy fun’. Now, having watched this film, I would consider my rating for the first film even more generous. This is basically a complete rehash of the original, but far more laughable in its execution.

Going through what is wrong with the film won’t take long. First although there is the plot, the story is simple yet it feels like it takes an hour and a half for anything to really happen. Then there is the main characters, Danny Glover’s overacting is far more noticeable here, with many cringe worthy scenes, complete with constant saxophone and in any ‘emotional’ scene he just shouts. Mel Gibson, whilst more consistent, is your typical alpha male ‘sex magnet’, his purpose in the film is to sleep with the only (developed?) female character. The writing is laughable; the dialogue is not really funny. The plot is riddled with coincidences and weird occurrences, why did that young cop join them for a few minutes before being shot dead? The scene with Mel Gibson and the dog seems like parody, and I find the re occurring joke with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover’s daughter to be a little odd.

The main villain is lacking in any personality and is extremely unmemorable. An ex cop gone rogue, how original. On the opposite side of the spectrum you have a memorable character in Joe Pesci, but for all the wrong reasons. Yes, he was in some great roles under Scorsese, but outside of his work with him, he seems to be easily available for any silly comedy role. His character offers nothing to the film apart from being really irritating and unfunny; he shows up every now and again to remind us of this, and each time I think we are supposed to laugh as Gibson and Glover attempt to get rid of him without offending him.

And now onto something that possibly irritated me the most. The action sequences. I have read and watched many different people discuss directing action scenes, the importance of camerawork in ensuring the action is coherent and easy to follow. I am normally pretty easy on film and will admit I do not normally notice many films with sequences hard to follow, but here they are almost unwatchable. The cuts do not make sense; it is just random shots one after another mashed together, until we eventually get to the end of the scene. This is particularly evident in the final shootout scene.

I know there are people who are big fans of the series as a whole, and there are people who simply find the films terrible, that they have not aged well. I did not lean either way really after watching the first film, but this is worse for me on every single level. In It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the characters make a spoof version of 'Lethal Weapon 5', it is hilariously bad, but at least it is supposed to be.

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