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LETHAL WEAPON 4

Written by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar. Directed by Richard Donner. Starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Renee Russo, Chris Rock.

Okay, lemme say this right off the top - this isn't gonna be much of a review. Why? Glad you asked. First off... I'm sick. Been sick for days, and I'm not getting better. And when I'm sick I'm just like every other guy out there. Namely, a big puss. So I don't much want to write this review. Secondly, I'm on a hellacious deadline that my being sick has completely fucked up. This means I'm not in a very good mood, and stressed beyond belief. And thirdly, the draft of the LETHAL WEAPON 4 script I have was written before the Chris Rock character was added, so it's obviously undergone some major changes. So don't expect much. Okay? Got it? Don't give me that look. I should be in bed!

Luckily for the series, Mel doesn't run like a girl -
referred to in Hollywood as 'Steven Seagal syndrome'.
But the jury's still out on Chris Rock (visible in the background).

The LETHAL WEAPON films pretty much follow all the rules of sequel-dom. The first film was really fun, the second one was okay, but seemed to be watered down a little, and the third one was a piece of crap that had been watered down more than the passengers on the Titanic. The reason the first one worked so well was due in large part to the chemistry between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Their characters were well defined (well, for an action buddy-movie anyway): Mel's Riggs was a cop who, since the death of his wife, had lost whatever slim grasp he had on sanity, prompting him to take risks and go ballistic at the drop of a hat. All of which clashed mightily with Glover's Murtaugh, a family man with about 20 minutes to go until retirement who just wanted to make it through the rest of his career unscathed. Their hostile (growing into fond) banter was a lot of fun, and the action setpieces were a step above other action films of the time. Then came LETHAL WEAPON 2, in which Riggs was no longer nuts, just eccentric in a cute n' cuddly kinda way - and even after all the hell he'd been through in the first film, Murtaugh still hadn't retired. All the fun banter between the two characters was still there, but disturbing elements began creeping in. Namely Joe Pesci's annoying Leo Getz character, and the villains being from South Africa to allow the filmmakers to take a risky stance by declaring that apartheid is bad. I still found the film to be fun... until I left the theatre and started thinking about how stupid the story was, and how illogical the characters had acted. Case in point... Riggs is doinking the evil South African guy's secretary in his trailer on the beach, when suddenly helicopters attack and turn the thing into swiss cheese (best analogy I could come up with - I told you, I'm sick). Riggs and the doinkette flee, miraculously escaping this horrendous firefight. So where does Riggs take her? A police station to place her under protective custody? A hospital to check and see that she's all right (or at least stop her from shaking in terror - a reaction any normal person would have to such an experience)? No! HE TAKES HER HOME! Back to her apartment so the bad guys won't have an ounce of trouble finding her. THIS IS LA'S BEST COP? Well, okay - after the OJ trial, maybe it is. But still! The movie's filled with stupid stuff like that. And then there's LETHAL WEAPON 3, in which Riggs is really adorably eccentric (so much so that they give him a mirror-image, just-as-nuts, tough-as-nails girlfriend), and Murtaugh still hasn't retired. And Pesci's back as the human equivalent of white noise. Terrible movie. Barely remember it. Just that I hated it.

LA's finest calmly and efficiently go about their task
of protecting the general public.

So what's the story in LETHAL WEAPON 4? Who really cares? Honest, if you're looking forward to seeing this film you're not concerned about tight dramatic structure and believable character arcs. You wanna know if the banter is fun, and if shit blows up. The answers: Yes and yes. What story there is centers on a Chinese crimelord and counterfeiting money, and the subplot has to do with Riggs' girlfriend from LETHAL 3 about to have his baby, and Riggs' reluctance to marry her. And oh yeah, there's a funny bit where the LAPD can't get insurance for the entire force because of the havoc that Riggs and Murtaugh regularly cause. And Leo Getz shows up again, but (in the script anyway) doesn't seem quite so intolerably obnoxious as in the last film. There. Got a feel for what the film is about? Let's get real - you got a feel for what the film is about the day you heard they were making it.

Mel and Danny congratulate each other on being so goshdarned adorable.

So did I like it or not? Truthfully... yeah, I did. The draft of the script I read (by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar, dated September 24, 1997) was really a lot of fun. The characters were doing all the familiar things their characters have done in the past three films, but with a little more self-awareness. The opening sequence, involving Riggs and Murtaugh storming a Chinese freighter in Murtaugh's brand new fishing boat, contains every single catch-phrase, visual gag and callback from the other films squished into one sequence - to humorous effect. And I liked the bit about the LAPD not being able to insure itself as long as Riggs and Murtaugh are on the street. Just another self-referential twist that I enjoyed. But like I said, you go to a LETHAL WEAPON movie for the banter between Gibson and Glover, and to see stuff 'splode. Well, suffice it to say the banter's much better than LETHAL 3, and lots of stuff gets blowed up real good. Here's the deal - if you liked LETHAL WEAPON 2, you'll probably like this one. Same tone. Same dippy plotting. Same amount of sheer dumb fun. 'kay? Satisfied? I'm goin' back to bed now.

MY PROGNOSIS? It's gonna be big - and if Chris Rock is as funny as Chris Rock usually is, the film should have a little added juice that the series can definitely use. Look for large grosses and an audible sigh of relief from the executive suites at Warner Bros.

LA TIMES (Kenneth Turan): "A fourth-generation copy of a distant original, LETHAL 4 is less a movie than a habit. Like a too-long-running TV show, it makes a fetish of familiarity, featuring the usual faces doing one more time what they've done repeatedly in the past. Because moviegoers can be counted upon to follow the naughty-boy police team of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover off the face of the Earth if necessary, LETHAL 4 apparently went into production without anything like a finished script... Four people may have bravely put their names on the LETHAL 4 script (screenplay by Channing Gibson, story by Jonathan Lemkin and Alfred Gough & Miles Millar), but it's disturbing to see such an inert, haphazard piece of business reach the screen. There's no plot worth describing, no response wittier than "Oh shut up," no acting moments that rise above the level of posting."

ROGER EBERT: "LETHAL WEAPON 4 has all the technical skill of the first three movies in the series, but lacks the secret weapon, which was conviction... The plot is so impenetrable that at one point the dialogue simply stops and explains it... But somehow it's all kind of hollow. By the numbers. I really did care for Murtaugh and Riggs in the first movie - and Leo, the Pesci character, was so much fun in the second one, he deserved an Oscar nomination. There was human interest in all the family scenes (especially involving Murtaugh's concern for his wife and kids), and poignancy in Riggs' lonely widower status. But all that has already happened by the beginning of this movie, and in a funny sense I felt like LETHAL WEAPON 4 was outtakes - stuff they didn't use earlier, pieced together into a movie that doesn't really, in its heart, believe it is necessary."

WHILE THE PUBLIC SAYS...

LETHAL WEAPON 4 blew away the competition in its first week of release, pulling in $34.4 million. Riggs and Murtaugh will be back in LETHAL WEAPON 5 where... well, where pretty much the same stuff will happen.

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