Lethal Weapon

Rating:
Summary: Great movie to start off the series
Review: "Lethal Weapon" pairs one of the best duos ever seen in a movie. A suicidal cop (Mel Gibson) and an aging veteran cop (Danny Glover) have to team up to investigate a case of a woman that jumped from a building to her death. They also have to battle some bad guys and catch other criminals on their way. However, not all is smooth sailing when the duo first meets. They must learn to get along and accept each other's styles if they want to get the job done.

"Lethal Weapon" couldn't have been done much better to start the series off at a fast pace. It has a lot of funny and action packed sequences in it. Some of the best are when Mel Gibson shows his ability to shoot a gun at target practice and the ending sequence.

If you like the "Lethal Weapon" series or action movies with a sense of comedy in them, I recommend getting "Lethal Weapon."

Rating:
Summary: Salt and Pepper Partners Bring Cheer!!!
Review: When I first saw this movie I could not get up from my seat for ten minutes after the movie ended. The movie really shows how whites can tolerate blacks when they have to. At the factory that my dad owns we have all black employes and I'm the foreman, once a month we show the movie to prove how all blacks are not lazy. I've even nicknamed our one black superviser Murtaw in honer of the great Danny Glover. Also, this movie has realism written all over it. I served in Grenada in the early 80's, and I know all about mercury switches. Man, those things are bad news.

Rating:
Summary: Classic but flawed
Review: The "Lethal Weapon" series is one of the most successful in movie history. This, the original 1987 film, is the best of all four movies. The plot pretty much revolves around cops Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) shooting lots of things, with little dahses of humor thrown in for good measure. It is an extremely entertaining movie.
The only problem? The director, Richard Donner, has always had a warped visual style. It really shows here. The photography and editing, which should have been top-notch for this kind of movie, are pretty messy. During the fight between Riggs and Gary Busey's character, I couldn't really tell what was going on. The camera was blurred half the time . . . I was almost frustrated by it.
Despite that, the performances were excellent. Glover always gives good acting, and Mel Gibson's "suicide" scene was completely believable to watch. Gary Busey played a terrific villain.
"Lethal Weapon" is truly a great movie. Don't let the shoddy photography turn you away from seeing it. Gibson and Glover give superb performances, and the dialogue has a nice beat. This is a movie worth seeing more than once.

Rating:
Summary: ACTION AT ITS BEST
Review: LETHAL WEAPON is one of the best action films of the past twenty years. Mel Gibson as the suicidal Riggs and Danny Glover as his reluctant partner have a superb chemistry and handle the roles beautifully. Gary Busey and Mitchell Ryan are super bad guys and Glover's family appropriately sentimental. Some great action sequences, especially when Gibson and the jumper "jump" off the roof. Gibson shows his range, too, in the scenes involving his grief over the loss of his wife. The action is fast paced and LETHAL WEAPON spawned three sequels and made beaucoups of bucks....a great action film!

Rating:
Summary: I like it
Review: Wavy-haired slab of beef Mel Gibson teams up with geriatric, family-having Danny Glover to make: The Ultimate crime-stopping team? Yes. This film is great. It even has references to the Three Stooges, which is okay by me. The two cops are trying to find out who killed this prostitute or something...I dunno, I never really FOLLOW it when I watch it, I just like watchin it. It is a very cool movie, and its comedy version ("Loaded Weapon 1") is hillarious. Mmmmm...yes.

Rating:
Summary: Not the Director's Cut
Review: The "Director's Cut" was actually corny. It did show how he got the other T.V. which I thought was great; that scene with the new T.V. raised some questions. Overall, the theatrical release is better than the director's cut; it showed Riggs in a schoolyard being shot at and never hit which would have had me leaving the theater right after the scene was over. I'm glad that scene was cut out. The other scene where he picks up a teenage hooker was also worthless; it never answers the question if he slept with her or not. It is completely useless from my point of view. The theatrical release is better than the director's cut except for the replacement T.V. scene; it should have been left in the theatrical release.

Rating:
Summary: Lethal Weapon (1987)
Review: Director: Richard Donner
Cast: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Mitchell Ryan, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love.
Running Time: 105 minutes.
Rated R for cop violence and language.

The ultimate in the cop-buddy action flicks, Richard Donner's "Lethal Weapon" is still an essential part of the action-drama genre to this day. Mel Gibson stars as the unstable, suicidal cop who is still grieving the tragic death of his wife, but finds purpose when he is teamed with over-the-hill Sergeant Danny Glover to investigate the mysterious death of a small-time hooker that jumped/was thrown off a building.

As the duo dives deeper into the case, they realize they are in the middle of a tense, big-time drug traffic arrangement and they are up against some tough cookies (namely Gary Busey and Mitchell Ryan). Gibson is great as the reckless Martin Riggs, using his insane tendencies as adrenaline throughout the film, but often also showing a sofer, tender side that produces a lot of laughs. Glover is his equal as Murtaugh, who feels that he is at his last stand as a police officer, but tags along because he feels his duty as a cop is unfinished. An excellent script by Shane Black and an explosive, taut directorial effort from Donner. Has lost some of its mustard due to numerous sequels and imitations ("Rush Hour" anyone?), but still an extremely fun action-adventure that will delight all those who are Gibson fans and love to laugh and gasp.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best of the genre
Review: Lethal Weapon is one of the best films of the action genre, blending off-beat humor with surprisingly expressive acting and tense situations. Though much of the plot is over the top, and the casualness of the gunplay (as Danny Glover asks Mel: "have you ever met anyone you didn't kill?) seems like it should make the movie too unbelievable to be good, the humor with which the situations are treated pulls the film together easily. Even though the scenes added in the director's cut don't add up to a much longer movie, they do further the character development of Mel Gibson's character. Notably, the sniper scene shows the audience the extent of Gibson/Riggs' emotional disturbance, and lends a deeper character credibility during the confrontation between Riggs and Murtaugh after the rooftop jump, in which Riggs explains that the only thing restraining him from suicide is "the job." Riggs is seen more clearly in this version as a modern gunslinger, a victim of depressed and unstable victim of circumstance who decides daily to keep on living only because he stubbornly refusus to let the bad guys win. Glover plays well opposite, and he does a very good job interpreting a man confronting middle age, family responsibilities, and his responsibility and desire to be a good cop despite the changes in the world that are occuring around him.
The humor is, at the end, what ties this film together. the punchlines seem to come at the tensest moments, though for the most part they avoid the cheesy one liners before blowing the bad guys away. They simply arise out of the context, and do not feel artificial. Busey is also good, and he can really act the part of being one mean SOB. The action is spectacular, and the end fight scene is extremely well choreographed, as the crew hired one of the infamous Gracies (A brazillian family who define modern mixed martial arts) to help out with it. One of my favorite movies of all time, and easily the best of the series, Lethal Weapon defines the action genre in a way that hasn't been seen since.

Rating:
Summary: can't beat an original
Review: this is one of my top ten movies of all time. I like how the director shows the beginning of their friendship on a very dark note, but then ends the movie with them making jokes and having the two not as serious as before. This movie is great and i highly recommend buying it.

Rating:
Summary: 4.0 out of 5
Review: LETHAL WEAPON is an action masterpiece, and one of my most favorite films. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover star as two extremely mismatched cops; one is on the edge after losing his wife in a car crash, the other is a newly-turned 50-year-old just trying to keep alive. Together they're slowly learning to like each other; when they do, they'll have to try to take down a secret drug ring run by Vietnam vets. Richard Donner's directing is very good, from a witty script by Shane Black; the score, by Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen, is one of the best and most jazzy film scores I've heard. There's plenty of action, plenty of thrills, but not plenty enough; you'll want this film to never end. An interesting version is this Director's Cut, which features more emphasis on Riggs' suicidal attitude. If you want action, if you want hilarious comedy, if you want non-stop entertainment - you want LETHAL WEAPON.