Title: 90's Action Feature: Lethal Weapon
Author: Desolation Morris
Recovered Author: Desolation Morris
Published Date: 2016-06-13
Original URL: https://geeknode.co.za/2016/06/90s-action-feature-lethal-weapon
Wayback URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20170707034636id_/http://www.geeknode.co.za/2016/06/90s-action-feature-lethal-weapon/
Recovery Confidence: high
Categories: Movie Feature
Tags: 90s action movies, 90s movie, exclusive, feature, featured, Lethal Weapon, movie feature

- Desolation Morris

- 1 year ago

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This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series 90's Action Feature
Now for something completely different. – Part 2 of my 90’s action feature!

Last time we took a long look at Demolition Man and a mere 7 months later I remembered I was doing this series and now wrote part 2. Such exciting!

Today I’ll be focusing on Lethal Weapon but since there are 4 films and all 4 kind of have to be viewed as a collective adventure to fully understand the whole story and the true magic behind these 90’s action hits – I’ll be focusing on all 4 collectively.

Lethal Weapon

1987, A time when cops could do whatever the hell they wanted as long as their Captain got to shout at them for an hour afterwards. Where swearing and smoking in public was a requirement of every day life and nobody gave a crap about going to the gym. Enter Lethal Weapon, one of the most iconic ‘buddy cop’ films ever to grace our screens.

Followed by 3 sequels and now a reboot in the works, Lethal Weapon is a film series that stood the test of time and came out on top.

Opening in 1st place in 1987 at the Box Office, it grossed an estimated $120 million worldwide. It’s sequels enjoyed slightly less successful openings with Lethal Weapon 2 in 1989 only being third most popular film at the time and Lethal Weapon 3 being the fifth most popular film of 1992.

Lethal Weapon 4 came close to the glory of 1987 in 1998 which also had a 1st place opening, grossing about $130 million and ending off the franchise and a job well done.

Story

The story follows Mel Gibson’s main character, Martin Riggs. This was before Gibson went officially nuts but Riggs provided a good preview of what we got in later years from him.

Riggs, a retired army veteran turned police officer loses his wife in a murder and in turn finds himself in a bit of a depressive state. He’s looking for a reason to die. Before finding a proper method of offing himself he meets Danny Glover’s character though, Roger Murtaugh, an over the hill cop on the verge of retiring because he’s obviously too old for this shit.

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Murtaugh saves Riggs through giving him a purpose to live and reminds him things aren’t really all that bad when you have friends and family around. Riggs in turn breathes some new life into Murtaugh who ends up deciding not to retire. They become close friends and spark an adventure spanning more than a decade and 4 films.

The first film mostly deals with Riggs and his issues while introducing Roger as his best friend where the second film goes on to delve deeper into Riggs and his past by confronting his wife’s murderer face to face and some of the worst Afrikaans accents you’ll hear until you watch District 9 many years later.

At that point they pretty much reached the limit of where Riggs was interesting so in the third film we get to see abit of Murtaugh and him dealing with a case where he had to shoot one of his sons friends in self defense.

It was a nice change from the usual Riggs-centered story and provided a more in depth understanding of what makes Roger tick. That’s not to say Riggs is absent though since he does end up meeting his love interest and a new dog in the 3rd film.

The 4 film series ends off with a high note as they introduce some vibrant new characters along with some beloved old favourites making a return and a brand new villain. Riggs & Murtaugh face off against the most deadly of opponents in the form of Jet Lee’s character, Wah Sing Ku. A piano wire wielding Triad with a talent for killing…and a weird kind of obsession with his brother.

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Notable Characters

Martin Riggs

Riggs is the main character of the franchise. He knows kung-fu, he’s ex-military and he can do things with a gun that should be CGI but wasn’t because it didn’t exist and they wouldn’t have been able to afford it anyway. He’s also insane and loves The Three Stooges.

Roger Murtaugh

Murtaugh is old and he carries a gun that’s older than he is. He can’t shoot for shit and usually spends his time running after Riggs yelling at him.

Leo Getz

Leo is a criminal that spends his time following around Riggs & Murtaugh and eventually tries his hand at being a private investigator and keeps getting himself in trouble. His obsession with the word ‘ok’ is worrying. Also…they fuck you at the drive-through.

Butters

Butters first makes an appearance in Lethal Weapon 4 and turns out to be Roger’s son in law. They can’t remember his name and when he begins talking with Leo you can’t get them to shut up.

Uncle Benny

Just because he has funny eyebrows and I like him for no reason.

Lorna Cole

She’s the new better half of Riggs. She’s nuts too and she can kick your ass. She spends most of her time pregnant in Lethal Weapon 4 and there’s absolutely no reason for her to be around other than being leverage for bad guys.

Wah Sing Ku

He’s Jet Lee without special effects. He kicks everyone’s asses and doesn’t say much but he’s the best and only villain worth mentioning. It’s not every day you find two Americans who can barely fight kicking Jet Lees ass.

Why We Like This Movie

Why not? I mean Lethal Weapon 1 through 4 is not only fun but funny, action packed, filled with great characters and it comes from a time way before critics ruled the planet. There’s a planned reboot on the way but whether this will ever live up to the greatness of the original remains to be seen.

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The short answer – It probably won’t. Long live the originals! Reboots be damned!

Notable Facts:

- Lethal Weapon 1 was at the top of The Box Office for 3 full weeks in 1987 and was dethroned by Blind Date

- Richard Donner made Mavrick, a comedic cowboy film about a gambler. In it Danny Glover has a Lethal Weapon cameo with Mel Gibson and part of the Lethal Weapon theme music can be heard during this encounter.

- Lethal Weapon 2 is Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and Richard Donner’s favourite entry of the 4 films.

- The building that explodes in Lethal Weapon 3 was in fact the former City Hall of Orlando, Florida which was a planned demolition

- On the Lethal Weapon 4 DVD, there are alternate openings and endings to Lethal Weapon 1.

This entry is part of 2 in the series 90's Action Feature
<< Movies: 90’s Action Feature: Demolition Man

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Desolation Morris

Guest Contributor - Entertainment

Werner is a strange one...he quotes a lot of things...incoherently I might add, also he reviews stuff from time to time. We still don't truly understand what he is or where he came from.

To quote him verbatim:

Make sure they see my twitter handle so I can get hookers and drugs.

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