LETHAL WEAPON (1987)

LETHAL WEAPON (1987)

Tagline: After 20 years on the force, police detective Roger Murtaugh has come face-to-face with the most dangerous killing machine in Los Angeles... his new partner.

(Action, Crime, He’s Only Slightly Crazy) [R]

I don't make things complicated. That's the way they get, all by themselves.

In this one, Martin Riggs is a cop in L.A. who has lost the woman he loves and become highly unstable. As part of his way of dealing with his grief, he takes outlandish steps to deal with criminals. After being assigned to veteran cop and family man Roger Murtaugh as his partner, the two expose a drug smuggling crime syndicate. As the danger intensifies the two starts working as a team in spite of having vastly different ways of doing things. 

I remember back when this came out it was getting a ton of praise. Not DIE HARD level praise, but definitely a lot of praise. Apparently, there was a bit of a casting mix-and-match situation here, because Bruce Willis was considered for the role of Martin Riggs, and Mel Gibson was considered to star in DIE HARD as John McClane. The action sequences are quite good, but I think what put this one over the top is that it was a bit edgier than most other buddy cop films coming out even in the 80s. There is a lot of profanity in this movie which is typically a turn-off for me, but because they lay the foundation for the characters, I kind of expect them to talk how they talk. 

The pacing is near perfect and the scene where Riggs tries to talk down a would-be suicide attempt is probably my favorite scene in the movie specifically because I wonder why what Riggs did isn’t used as a technique far more often. I also liked the score and the cinematography. One of the reasons why this movie stands out so much these days is because it reminds us of a time when race was hardly a focus at all in society for everyday people. Of course, racism existed, but no one with half a brain cared if you were black or white or brown or any of that. If you were my partner, I was going to take a bullet or die for you when the time came. I think most people in these walks of life, either cops, firefighters, the military, etc., where you could die on any given day don’t have time for the societal pressure from the media, our educational system, and entertainment to be divided. If it’s time to protect your partner, you just do your job, color is irrelevant. This is not to say there are not tons of other movies where you have a mixed-race team and it’s awesome, but that is one of the reasons this flick stands out. 

Another reason it stands out is that it comes across as raw and unpolished. This wasn’t typical of every movie in the 80s and this movie kind of sets the bar for that. When we start getting to the acting side of things this one came out back when Mel Gibson (BOSS LEVEL) was at the top of his game. I don’t know anyone that agrees with everything Mel says, but he seems to bounce back from every controversy that comes his way. He takes on the role of Martin Riggs with a pretty weird energy, but it works to perfection here. Danny Glover (2012) has a really strong out in this. He was only 40 when the movie was shot, but did a great job of playing a 50-year-old. I think if you are 40 and you just move slightly slower and make an expression like moving is a little annoying then you might be on track to doing a great job of playing an older character. Which – just in case that is you, like you are 30 and up, then some sort of fish oil will probably help. I love that stuff. 

Anyway – back to the movie I thought the ending was incredible, it was very DIE HARD-esque. The additional cast was outstanding. Tom Atkins (as Michael Hunsaker) and Gary Busey (as Joshua) crushed their roles as do Darlene Love (as Trish Murtaugh), Traci Wolfe (as Rianne Murtaugh), and Ebonie Smith (as Carrie Murtaugh) who would all go on to reprise their roles in the rest of the series. 

Overall this movie is still very watchable to this day and like DIE HARD it actually happens at Christmas. Some would argue it’s even more of a “Christmas” movie from a secular sense than DIE HARD. I give this one a solid 5 out of 7. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF WARNER BROS. AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.