DIRECTOR
Richard Donner
SCREENWRITER
Channing Gibson
STORY
BY
Jonathan Lemkin
Alfred Gough
Miles Millar
based
on characters created by
Shane Black
PRODUCERS
Richard Donner
Joel Silver
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Andrzej Bartkowiak
MUSIC
Eric Clapton
Michael Kamen
David Sanborn
EDITORS
Dallas Puett
Kevin Stitt
Eric Strand
Frank J. Urioste
CAST
Mel Gibson (Martin Riggs)
Danny Glover (Roger Murtaugh)
Joe Pesci (Leo Getz)
Rene Russo (Lorna Cole)
Chris Rock (Lee Butters)
Jet Li (Wah Sing Ku)
Darlene Love (Trish Murtaugh)
MPAA rating: R
Running
time: 127m
U.S. release: July 10, 1998
Video availability: VHS - DVD
Official
website
Other Richard
Donner films
reviewed on this site:
- Assassins
- Conspiracy
Theory
- Maverick
|
"We
are not getting too old for this shit!" chant Mel
Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon 4, echoing Glover's
oft-repeated catchphrase. Uh, yes you are, guys. The very definition
of a meaningless, mindless summer sequel, LW4 is fairly
painless for about its first hour. After that, you may have to
remind yourself what the plot is supposed to be about. And then
you may have to remind yourself why you bothered to remind yourself.
This is easily the most sketchily written of the Lethal Weapon
movies, obviously improvised on the set whenever possible (a
ploy that fizzles more often than not).
There was really no reason to make a fourth entry in this once-honorable
action series -- there was barely a reason to make the third
one, either (except that it introduced Rene Russo, a welcome
dose of estrogen in this testosterone-drunk series). For me,
the perpetually near-retired Roger Murtaugh (Glover) and psycho
Vietnam vet Martin Riggs (Gibson) hit their stride, and their
peak, in 1989's satisfyingly whiplash LW2. Since then,
Murtaugh and Riggs have coasted on our affection for them; Riggs
isn't even crazy any more -- in LW4 he's so mellow he
seems ready to host a landscape-painting show on PBS.
Director Richard Donner (who has helmed all four Lethal Weapons)
is coasting, too. He stages one good wacky car chase on an L.A.
freeway, and it's stupidly enjoyable while you're watching it.
But afterwards you may recall the movies it cribs from -- Raiders
of the Lost Ark, a similar chase in LW2 -- and you
also may feel bone-tired of car chases. And there's never any
real threat or danger in the action scenes. By now, Riggs and
Murtaugh are so well-loved that you know Donner isn't going to
kill off either of them.
The Lethal Weapon movies have always thrown in some hapless
attempt at social relevance amid all the cartoonish brutality
-- we had South African villains in LW2, a gun-runner
providing weapons to South Central kids in LW3, and in
LW4 we have a Chinese Mr. Big (Jet Li, the latest Hong
Kong star to dip his toe into Hollywood waters) who smuggles
Asian immigrants into Los Angeles only to enslave them and force
them to work in his counterfeit-cash operation. One step forward,
two steps back: Just as Mulan comes out and Asian-Americans
thought it was safe to go to the movies, along comes LW4
to revive the old Yellow Peril. Jet Li is impressive here, but
his moves left me wanting to see him in his undiluted Hong Kong
glory, not in weak Hollywood stuff like this.
Russo returns as Riggs' detective sweetheart Lorna, who is now
pregnant and therefore excused from most of the boy-boy action.
(She does pack a mean kick despite being nearly nine months along
-- any women out there care to comment on the physical verisimilitude
of this?) Joe Pesci also returns as the motormouth Leo Getz,
now an inept private eye who seems to exist only to expound nasally
on a variety of irrelevant topics. Series newcomer Chris Rock,
as a hot-headed younger detective, joins Pesci in a rather amusing
dual rant about cell phones, but both men wear out their welcome
fast. They both start at a high pitch and never let up -- they're
like duelling car alarms. Meanwhile, Glover and especially Gibson
sit back in most of their improvised scenes and goof off; some
of the goofing off is funny, but most of it is just two overfamiliar
partners trying and failing to wing it without a script.
Somewhere around the second hour, I lost interest. A minor character
we've gotten to know and care about is killed, and it has no
weight, no impact on his family or on the cop who has befriended
him. I trust I will reveal nothing shocking by noting that the
bad guy gets it in the end -- does he ever not, in the LW
series? -- but Donner, having impaled him during a thunderstorm,
misses his chance to send the villain off in grand fashion with
a well-aimed bolt of lightning. He misses a lot of chances; he
prefers to kick back and relax. But what's the point of a relaxed
Joel Silver action blockbuster? At Lethal Weapon 4, you're
either glad to be with these guys again, or you wish Warner Brothers
would come up with a good story for them -- or simply retire
them. The schmaltzy final scenes, which surface from the depths
of a pious family-values hell, would indicate that this sequel
is meant to be our goodbye to Murtaugh and Riggs. If only it
weren't such a long goodbye. |