copyright © Jedo Dre 2011

IAfter a lifetime of seeing this film in bits and pieces, whenever it happened to appear on TV, I finally saw it for the first time in its entirety, and the feelings are mixed.


The basic premise of the movie is really bland. It should be enough to hear that that a movie was made in the 80s and that drugs and cops are involved to turn off a large number of people. Lethal Weapon has the markings of a typical 80s factory stamped action movie and it could have disappeared into obscurity, were it not for the two people at its centre: Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.


Lethal Weapon is what has become known as a buddy-cop movie. The thing you need for a buddy cop movie is two good actors with a bit of chemistry and that is exactly what these two folks gave us. Nowadays, Mel's personal reputation almost squeezed him out of Hollywood, but do not forget, he is an actor with great charisma and Danny turned out to be just the right complement to his energy.


The first part of the movie, when these two are first introduced and just work of each other, is the good part of the movie, but then the stupid starts. The cheesy 80s action stereotypes all come creeping in, complete with shooting rifles from the hip and unnecessary one on one fist fights. The dialogue turns to crap and the humour dies.


This flick has a charm that keeps it a float, but it's a shame the story and the action is so poor.

Lethal Weapon