Lethal Weapon


Riggs: "You don't trust me at all, do you?"
Murtaugh: "I tell you what. You make it through tomorrow without killing anybody - especially me or yourself - then I'll start trusting you."
Riggs: "Fair enough."



release year: 1987
genre: action
viewing setting: home Bluray 11/19/21 and 3/14/16 and DVD 6/8/13 and 7/15/98 and several times before that

synopsis: Two cops - one a retiring family man, the other an apparent suicidal psychotic - are partnered up and must solve a murder, if they can get along with each other.

impressions: After about fifteen years, I finally got around to watching this series again, and as always, these movies never, ever fail to be slick and entertaining. There are great characters, plenty of action, numerous funny lines and situations - everything's there. This was the first and (in my mind anyway) kick-started the buddy-cop genre at the time. In this one, there was no established rapport between the two, and Riggs wasn't very stable - he really didn't care if he died. This is even more apparent in the director's cut, which has some extra scenes showing just how low Riggs has sunk.

body count: 27 (14 by Riggs, 4 by Murtaugh, 1 by both, and 8 by others)

asses kicked by Riggs: 5

acting: Mel Gibson is the martial-arts-using, marksman-level-shooting wild cop on the edge. Danny Glover is the older, more by-the-book family man. Gary Busey does a great job as the main evil henchman. Mitchell Ryan is the head bad guy. Action movie staple Al Leong is an evil torturing henchman and actually has a couple of lines here.

final word: The first in a consistently good series, it is required viewing for action fans.

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