Lethal Weapon (1987) Review

CLAYTON'S CHRISTMAS CINEMA!

Lethal Weapon (1987) Review

If you’re looking for a Christmas movie that isn’t just all carols and cookies and ribbons and wrappings and you want some gritty action to balance the yuletide carols, the default film is usually Die Hard. It’s one of the best action films of the eighties, and it just so happens to be set at Christmas time. But there’s another awesome action movie that was released a year before Die Hard which many people seem to forget also has a December setting, and that is Lethal Weapon.

It begins with a topless woman doing cocaine and jumping off a balcony, appearing to have committed suicide. The opening is very attention grabbing, but then it takes its time setting up the plot and characters. Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is an aging cop who’s trying to be a good family man and keep his insanity while working in the hectic L.A.P.D. As he says, he’s “...getting too old for this shit.” Riggs (Mel Gibson) is a batshit crazy ex-Special Forces cop who lives a rough life and fights with depression. Murtaugh and Riggs are made partners, and they begin an unlikely and unstable partnership, eventually becoming friends as they pursue whoever laced the woman who jumped off the balcony’s cocaine with drain cleaner, which makes it an attempted murder, not just suicide. As they get closer to catching their perp, the action ramps up, the stakes become higher, and it culminates in a final duel between Riggs and the villain behind the whole scheme (Gary Busey).

Lethal Weapon might not be as much of a classic as Die Hard, but it’s still an exciting action film and also one of the best of the eighties. The lead actors are definitely the standout here. Danny Glover is great as always, and Mel Gibson is both hilarious and frightening as the off-balance Riggs. It’s made clear he’s insane from the beginning, and his unpredictability plays out to maximum effect in several scenes. There’s a part where Riggs is negotiating with a guy who’s teetering on the edge of a building, ready to jump and kill himself. Riggs tries to talk him down, but then he handcuffs himself to the guy and jumps off the building! Luckily there’s an inflatable mattress below, but the audience doesn’t know that until they land on it. The direction by Richard Donner is excellent, particularly with the action scenes, and Shane Black’s script is full of witty sarcasm and memorable pieces of dialogue. As great as the film is, when there isn’t an action scene happening or the two leads aren’t interacting, it does tend to drag in some spots, and the pacing in general is actually quite slow. I also had a problem with the very end being too over the top, but I won’t spoil what it entails.

Overall, Lethal Weapon is a fun flick, and the Christmas season is present in nearly every scene, though it doesn’t play a huge part in the overarching story. It could have been set at any time of year, but we need more unconventional Christmas films, so I’m glad to have an action film other than Die Hard to watch over the holidays.