Review of Lethal Weapon (1987) by James S — 20 Aug 2013

By no means the first cop buddy/mismatch partners movie but one that pretty much became the blueprint for the formula. Richard Donner's Lethal Weapon is by far the most serious entry the series, a redemption tale before the franchise took a more light hearted direction. This outing is memorable for it's darkness, sordid goings on and the bleakness with which is presents life in the LAPD.

It's Christmas and policeman Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is saddled with a new partner, Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) to investigate the death of an old friends daughter. It soon transpires that this runs a lot deeper than originally thought.

In this first Lethal Weapon film, the plot is almost secondary to the story of Martin Riggs, and how his friendship with Murtaugh saves him from his own personal damnation. Having lost his wife in a car crash, Riggs is broken, a man with a death wish, which we see him try to fulfill on a number of occasions. Gibson is fantastic, really getting the grief of Riggs over and he has great chemistry with Glover, a man just trying to make it from day to day in a world he's becoming a little long in the tooth for.

The villains are a little by the book in this first Lethal Weapon movie though Gary Busey's Mr Joshua has managed to etch his name into the action movie rogue gallery. Busey is usually reliable at this sort of thing. I'd argue that he's actually better in Predator 2 than here, but he's a good scumbag nonetheless.

There's a good helping of action throughout, though the series wasn't trying to go for broke in those stakes for this film. It lets it's audience begin to care about these characters and that's why it works so well.

Lethal Weapon is a great film about the beginning of a friendship and how we can find that in the most unlikely of places and people sometimes.