Review of Lethal Weapon (1987) by Javor B — 13 Jun 2011

Lethal Weapon stars Danny Glover as Detective Sergeant Roger Murtaugh, a cop worried about getting old after recently having his 50th birthday, and Mel Gibson as Detective Sergeant Martin Riggs, Murtaugh's new partner who is dealing with his suicidal feelings after the death of his wife of 12 years. Together, the two detectives work on a case of a young woman's suicide, which turns out to be bigger than they can imagine.

Glover and Gibson make a brilliant duo, their chemistry and diaolgue bouncing off one another. They really are a brilliant duo, you understand why audiences demanded more Gibson/Glover buddy cop action 3 more times.

I liked that they actually took time to build up the characters of Murtaugh and Riggs, rather than making them a generic two dimensional buddy cop duo, by building on Murtaugh's fear of getting old and his family life, whilst giving us more interesting development for Riggs in his coping with his wifes death by feeling suicidal. It does kinda hurt the film that the first half was significantly weaker than the second due to the first half taken to build up the characters, but it still managed to be a good half, just less interesting.

The action is magnificent, I especially like the final fight between Mr Joshua (Gary Busey) and Riggs, it was a brilliant watch. The torture scene with Endo was another great scene in this film, and my favourite scene is where Riggs is trying to help the man who wants to jump off the building.

The films mystery feels a bit basic, but this isn't a film where you expect them to have an ingeniously plotted mystery first and foremost, so I can't really call them out for this.

Lethal Weapon is a great buddy cop movie that works because of Gibson and Glover, and it helps that the characters are actually developed, the comedy is actually funny and the action is great to watch.