Review of Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) by Stephen S — 06 Jan 2012

Okay I guess. Just dumb and cliche'd. The storyline has just been used so much that its exhausted...the whole "I'm getting too old for this" thing is just so boring at this point. The storyline is the main problem I have with this film. Not only is it tired, but it's just dumb. Beyond that, I can't really say much. Gibson and Glover are good as usual, but the supporting cast choices are pretty bizarre. The returning players from Lethal Weapon 3, like Joe Pesci and Rene Russo, aren't used effectively. I wasn't a fan of Pesci in the last one, and while I like his character, he's just really annoying here. Maybe he's not as annoying overall, but he's totally unnecessary in this film, while he was necessary to the story in Lethal Weapon 3; that's probably why I find him more annoying. While I liked Rene Russo in the last one, she isn't in a lot of scenes here; her character is supposed to be pregnant, so she's as embedded in the story as she could be. When she does get involved in the story, it's usually in fight scenes, which are pretty obsurd to see because she's supposed to be several months pregnant.

The rest of the cast, particularly Chris Rock and Jet Li, are just weird choices like I said...why would you put them both together in the same movie, first of all? Chris Rock can be funny at times, I'll admit, but his sole purpose is to be a running joke that Riggs starts. I won't go into detail, but while it's pretty funny at first, it drags later on because they bring it up every time Rock shows up. Moving on, Jet Li kicks a lot of ass here, but as this is far from a straight-up kung fu movie, he's pretty damn out of place here. I'd also like some sort of a backstory of any kind for his character, but apparently the writers thought this was too much to ask for.

Watch this if you're a fan of the Lethal Weapon movies, but don't expect to watch it more than once.