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Lethal Weapon
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
There's something about these kinds of movies where they just can't help including food. LOOK, you're puttin' all this food away, but it's not like we're ever gonna see you **** it out, what makes you think I find what you're having for dinner any more interesting than the book you got sitting next to the crapper? I don't care, please shut up.
Birthdays, Kissing, Dogs, Eggs, Bacon, Hotdogs, Turkey, Ice Cream, Fish, Fishing, nearly all of this **** is specifically referenced in DIALOG, GO AWAY.
Lethal Weapon at it's worst is unpleasant to suffer, the camera gets in all close, everyone gets overdramatic as **** (*shock of realization* "you knew her..."), and scenes become interminable. Danny Glover talking down to the street kids in his enthusiastic dad voice is cringe-inducing and they haven't the mercy to point out how awkward he is.
Mel Gibson also overacts the **** out of his character, at least at the start, he's twitchy as **** and it would've taken a few dozen less wide-eyed open mouth spasms to convey that he was unhinged.
At it's best however, Lethal Weapon reminds me of Appleseed, which reminds me of Strange Days, which are Grade-A gigs in my book.
All of these movies feature contrasting character pairs (and ironically all of them have police or military backgrounds), and in Lethal Weapon we got the straight-laced two-days-left-till-retirement Danny Glover paired with the youthful go-get-em newbie- WHOA WAIT A SECOND, I'm sorry, I have the wrong movie, I mean the rogue cop with a criminal past- WHAT NO, THAT'S TOTALLY WRONG.
I mean suicidal psycho veteran, Mel Gibson.
The scene that occurs early on that establishes their relationship has Mel's character, Riggs, nearly blow his own head off when Danny's character, Murtaugh, calls him on his bluff.
At first I didn't quite get why Murtaugh was antagonizing him, but when he mentioned "psycho pensions" I got to thinking and realized, AHHH, if he were to retire supposedly scarred from the force there might be a policy to compensate him further, I get it.
I'm extraordinarily unfamiliar with these things so I'm gonna say that while it made sense to me that it wasn't conveyed quite as clearly to someone with no idea of what pensions are (don't laugh).
Anyway, after this super intense staredown over the barrel of a gun, Rigg's is all, "Oh, it's your birthday? Happy birthday, man." and way friendly all of a sudden. He was way overacting before, but at least this establishes that he's unpredictable, and even simultaneously establishes that as nutzo as he may be he can at least approximate a facade of professionalism.
With this out of the way, most of the movie has Riggs and Murtaugh workin' there rounds while very seamlessly working in development of their interpersonal relationship and additionally packing in sneaky exposition about Riggs' past as a hardcore spec ops and a plot to culminate in the kidnapping of Murtaugh's daughter.
I have to admit, I wasn't paying super duper close attention to the plot (been playing Deck Heroes actually, it's fun), but I think it's fairly predictable at this point, for these sorts of movies, that the whole "these crimes are connected!" plot that shifts into focus never really comes into focus as clearly as they could. Suddenly the main characters are throwing around the names of multiple characters that are so background that they barely manage screentime long enough for me to ever be able to point my finger at them and say what their name is.
The action's obviously not of the sort one should expect from a kung-fu movie or even a John Woo movie as I've been watching, but what it managed was solid, largely thanks to the strong characters which lends a lot of weight to moments like when Mel Gibson takes a full-on shotgun blast to the chest which throws him bodily through a window.
That's a pretty big "holy ****!" moment, and there are several of them, like when one of their suspect's houses just friggen' explodes, there's no warning or any of those annoying movie queues that tell you something is wrong.
I had one of those moments in Murtaugh's house and it got all quiet and he was looking through his mail and I'm all "something's gonna happen, something's gonna happen..."
And nothing happened.
Thank you. Thank you, Lethal Weapon, for not living down to my expectations. Now that we know you can make a solid action movie, let's see you do it without the turkey dinner, eh? Or was that a crucial plotpoint I just missed?
No, I'm serious, I get that his wife's cooking a bonding topic for them-wait nevermind, "WIFE", forgot marriage, I usually forget marriage. We just can't have a man and a women live together and have a family with words like "husband" and "wife", there just aren't English words for that, **** you, English! What'd you ever do for anybody?
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]
Lethal Weapon
Action Crime / English / 1987
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
For the Action Movie Countdown.
I've seen A Lethal Weapon movie, I don't know which one. I recall Mel Gibson dawdling around on a beach with his wife or something and he and Danny Glover shooting a flamethrower guy to make him explode, I don't know which one that is.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
I've seen A Lethal Weapon movie, I don't know which one. I recall Mel Gibson dawdling around on a beach with his wife or something and he and Danny Glover shooting a flamethrower guy to make him explode, I don't know which one that is.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
"No way you live, no way..."
There's something about these kinds of movies where they just can't help including food. LOOK, you're puttin' all this food away, but it's not like we're ever gonna see you **** it out, what makes you think I find what you're having for dinner any more interesting than the book you got sitting next to the crapper? I don't care, please shut up.
Birthdays, Kissing, Dogs, Eggs, Bacon, Hotdogs, Turkey, Ice Cream, Fish, Fishing, nearly all of this **** is specifically referenced in DIALOG, GO AWAY.
Lethal Weapon at it's worst is unpleasant to suffer, the camera gets in all close, everyone gets overdramatic as **** (*shock of realization* "you knew her..."), and scenes become interminable. Danny Glover talking down to the street kids in his enthusiastic dad voice is cringe-inducing and they haven't the mercy to point out how awkward he is.
Mel Gibson also overacts the **** out of his character, at least at the start, he's twitchy as **** and it would've taken a few dozen less wide-eyed open mouth spasms to convey that he was unhinged.
At it's best however, Lethal Weapon reminds me of Appleseed, which reminds me of Strange Days, which are Grade-A gigs in my book.
All of these movies feature contrasting character pairs (and ironically all of them have police or military backgrounds), and in Lethal Weapon we got the straight-laced two-days-left-till-retirement Danny Glover paired with the youthful go-get-em newbie- WHOA WAIT A SECOND, I'm sorry, I have the wrong movie, I mean the rogue cop with a criminal past- WHAT NO, THAT'S TOTALLY WRONG.
I mean suicidal psycho veteran, Mel Gibson.
The scene that occurs early on that establishes their relationship has Mel's character, Riggs, nearly blow his own head off when Danny's character, Murtaugh, calls him on his bluff.
At first I didn't quite get why Murtaugh was antagonizing him, but when he mentioned "psycho pensions" I got to thinking and realized, AHHH, if he were to retire supposedly scarred from the force there might be a policy to compensate him further, I get it.
I'm extraordinarily unfamiliar with these things so I'm gonna say that while it made sense to me that it wasn't conveyed quite as clearly to someone with no idea of what pensions are (don't laugh).
With this out of the way, most of the movie has Riggs and Murtaugh workin' there rounds while very seamlessly working in development of their interpersonal relationship and additionally packing in sneaky exposition about Riggs' past as a hardcore spec ops and a plot to culminate in the kidnapping of Murtaugh's daughter.
I have to admit, I wasn't paying super duper close attention to the plot (been playing Deck Heroes actually, it's fun), but I think it's fairly predictable at this point, for these sorts of movies, that the whole "these crimes are connected!" plot that shifts into focus never really comes into focus as clearly as they could. Suddenly the main characters are throwing around the names of multiple characters that are so background that they barely manage screentime long enough for me to ever be able to point my finger at them and say what their name is.
The action's obviously not of the sort one should expect from a kung-fu movie or even a John Woo movie as I've been watching, but what it managed was solid, largely thanks to the strong characters which lends a lot of weight to moments like when Mel Gibson takes a full-on shotgun blast to the chest which throws him bodily through a window.
That's a pretty big "holy ****!" moment, and there are several of them, like when one of their suspect's houses just friggen' explodes, there's no warning or any of those annoying movie queues that tell you something is wrong.
I had one of those moments in Murtaugh's house and it got all quiet and he was looking through his mail and I'm all "something's gonna happen, something's gonna happen..."
And nothing happened.
Thank you. Thank you, Lethal Weapon, for not living down to my expectations. Now that we know you can make a solid action movie, let's see you do it without the turkey dinner, eh? Or was that a crucial plotpoint I just missed?
No, I'm serious, I get that his wife's cooking a bonding topic for them-wait nevermind, "WIFE", forgot marriage, I usually forget marriage. We just can't have a man and a women live together and have a family with words like "husband" and "wife", there just aren't English words for that, **** you, English! What'd you ever do for anybody?