with
Mel Gibson as loony and deadly L.A. cop Martin Riggs and Danny Glover as
his cautious and enduring partner Roger Murtaugh. What started as
sort of a big budget high concept cop movie (suicidal loner cop assigned
to cautious family man partner) has become a god-awful theater of pain
showcase, sort of a Three Stooges movie with a $100 million budget and
sentimental messages to whitewash its endless scenes of murder, brutality
and torture, a movie so evil and anti-life I felt like I needed not just
a shower after watching it, but probably an exorcism as well.
Yeah, you can tell I enjoyed it.
I thought the first Lethal Weapon kinda stank. But I really liked Lethal Weapon 2, which is one of the best American HK movies ever made. Lethal Weapon 3, however, was such utter, utter crap I put off seeing LW4 until well after a year of its release despite the presence of HK god Jet Li as bad guy Wah Sing Ku.
Yes, Jet Li, one of the great film presences of all time. Jet Li, portrayer of such Chinese heros as Wong Fei-Hong, Fong Sai-Yuk, and Chen Zhen, plays an unstoppable badass who's trying to capture a family of illegal Chinese immigrants that Murtaugh is befriending. This is a little bit like casting John Wayne in a Japanese movie as, I don't know, a cannibal serial killer or something.
Anyway, this only partially explains why, during the various fight scenes, I yelled at the TV, "Kill him, Jet! Break his neck!" Because at other points in the movie, I also yelled, "Shoot him, Danny! It's your only chance to be set free! Mel is the devil!"
Mel Gibson is Satan in this movie. Among other things, his character, Riggs, refuses to tell his best friend, Murtaugh, who the father of Murtaugh's impending grandchild is (despite there apparently being only one other black man--Chris Rock--in all of Los Angeles). In fact, when Murtaugh mistakes Rock's attempts at ingratiation as a gay crush, Riggs keeps the misunderstanding going. I wish I could have a best friend who makes me the butt of his jokes, privately and publicly.
The action is choreographed by Corey Yuen, who, as well as directing
some of my favorite HK films (Righting Wrongs,
among others) is a kick ass fight director. Unfortunately, the director
of LW4 is Richard Donner, so every punch and kick is followed by a quick
editing cut; a 70's Hollywood cheat that most veteran directors still 
use,
despite having one of the world's most amazing martial artists on the screen.
The big fight at the end still manages to have some oomph to it, and the
moviemakers were respectful enough to make Jet Li's character seemingly
able to beat everyone at once, but I would have been happier if he had
lived and Mel and Danny had died. Or if they had all died.
What the hell. I'm a big hearted guy.
The cast is truly overwhelming in size and scope and it seems that everyone gets a subplot; Chris Rock plays Lee Butters, the guy who inseminates Murtaugh's daughter. Rene Russo is back as Mel love interest Lorna Cole. Russo was the only thing I liked about LW3, and I like the few scenes that she gets in this movie. Joe Pesci returns as Leo Getz and looks disgusted at himself for being there acting like a retard. He gives a speech about his pet dead frog at the end of the movie that allows Riggs to emotionally move on from the death of his wife; Pesci deserves an award just for making it through the vile thing. Everyone gets a scene or two, just on the offhand chance that the only reason people went to Lethal Weapon movies was because of the superior acting abilities of Murtaugh's wife and daughter. The whole thing is kind of like a Happy Days Reunion Special with armor-piercing bullets and compound fractures.
As for Jet Li, despite the fact that he plays a brutal Triad killer,
he emotes more warmth, energy and power than the rest of the
cast together. There's a scene where he meets the Four Fathers, the
superheads of the world's toughest Triad, and his treatment of them with
love, fear and respect gives you more insight into his character than any
number of Mel Satan's speeches about how he's afraid of getting old, of
leaving behind his wife, of getting remarried, etc.(it's possible that
I would have liked Mel's character more if they had tortured him--Mel's
favorite way of ingratiating himself with the audience--but I doubt it.)
Overall, this movie scared the living crap out of me; it is a devouring, trivializing monster that co-opts anything that seems fresh and interesting and turns it to shit with a single touch. This is the cinematic equivalent of crack whore, ready and willing to do anything to please you as long as it gets your money. Many people got rich off Lethal Weapon 4; they don't need any more and your life's too short.
All written material on these pages is © 1999 by Jeff Lester. With the exception of non-profit distribution, all other rights are reserved.