Arma mortal

This is the quintessential buddy cop duo. Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is a suicidal disturbed cop suffering with his wife's death. Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is the veteran unlucky enough to be assigned to partner up with Riggs. Murtaugh's Vietnam war buddy had a daughter who was killed. They investigate and find a conspiracy of drug smugglers.

Mel Gibson does great crazy. Only years later do we see him do it real life. Mel has interior intensity that serves him well over the years. This one is no exception. Danny Glover plays the opposite. Murtaugh's catch phrase "I'm too old for this sht!" says it all. Together they form a great Hollywood cop team. Certainly they have enough chemistry for countless sequels.

The film opens with a panoramic aerial shot of Los Angeles, where a beautiful blonde girl in a penthouse apartment is lying, in a sexy white satin nightgown, on a luxurious red sofa... Drugs comes into focus on a table next to her...

She rouses herself to sniff some white powder, steps out (completely unbalanced) onto the balcony and stands on the railing, ready to plunge peacefully down...

Mel Gibson is remarkable as Martin Riggs... He is talented as both a cop and a clown... His character carries a great level of tension... He is both charismatic and enigmatic... Riggs is a homicide detective suffering harmful levels of stress, after losing his wife in an automobile accident... He seems unstable... He slaps and pummels a drug dealer in the manner of the "Three Stooges," and dares his hostage taker to shoot him...

He is on the brink of despair... He takes out a bullet, loads it in his .9 millimeter Beretta, puts the gun into his mouth, and appears ready to pull the trigger...

He is suicidal... He snaps a handcuff on a jumper's wrist, and snaps the other end onto his own wrist... Then he holds up the key to the cuffs, and flings it out into space...

He is a sharpshooter... He raises his gun and fires without blinking, and claims that killing is "the only thing he could ever do well."

He is partnered with a black middle-aged police detective to investigate the death of the girl that leaped off the balcony... Both quickly build up a strong friendship that lead them to uncover a very dangerous heroin ring...

Danny Glover is at his best against an actor who can easily steal scenes... He plays an old-fashioned detective who is obsessed about his age, and goes by the book... We simply see him scanning, reading the odds...

Murtaugh - on his 50th birthday - wears his past like a scar... He is a conservative family man who has to follow Riggs' hurtful plan to get his daughter back...

Gary Busey plays Mr. Joshua, a trained expert killer, cool as ice, deadly calm... It's essential for him to find out how much the police know... He tries his best to get Riggs out of the picture... His boss the General (Mitch Ryan) is a rugged man with eyes like chips of stone... The ruthless general thinks that it's now the precise time to turn up the heat... He wants Murtaugh to be tortured... He kidnaps Murtaugh's little girl, the gorgeous Rianne (Traci Wolfe) to make him speak...

Richard Donner's 'Lethal Weapon' is one of the finest films to offer its audience the combination of strong acting, and scenes out of hell... It is an exciting cop drama cleverly constructed... The final battle, where the two cops team up against the general and his henchmen, is especially thrilling... Donner's film also skates around the sexual implications of male bonding, but the scene in which Gibson and Glover are captured by the crooks and tortured dramatizes male vulnerability in a manner that became familiar in the action film...

LETHAL WEAPON (1987) ***1/2 Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Mitchell Ryan, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, Traci Wolfe. One of the best action/comedy/buddy films of all time with Gibson as suicidal loose cannon maverick cop Martin Riggs mismatched with partner Roger Murtaugh (Glover in one great comic role), who is constantly reminded of his age and the danger he's constantly in: solving a drug-linked homicide of Murtaugh's friend's daughter. Busey is memorable as an albino mercenary, Mr. Joshua, unsusceptible to pain. Some great stunts and lots of thrills thanks to helmsman Richard Donner (who also directed the sequels).

This movie is an onslaught of action; beginning with the opening scene death to the captivating end, it's a bombardment of epic scenes and high emotions. The plot is okay but what definitively stands out is Mel Gibson's performance.

From start to finish, Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) makes you feel excited just watching him. Whether it's with his psychotic bouts, unique demeanour or deep moments, his presence adds an energy to this movie that makes it both fun and insane (in a good way). His quality acting in Lethal Weapon is surely some of the best in cinema.

Besides the amazing casting, the overall story is mediocre. In this film, though, it's the acting that makes it special. There are so many aspects to entertainment, and Lethal Weapon hit the mark with Mel as the lead.

One more year until Die Hard that set all the clichés for future action pics. Until then, you'll just have to settle for Lethal Weapon, the movie that set the buddy-cop clichés. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

What a fantastically realistic, original and fun movie the original Lethal Weapon movie was. In addition, it broke barriers by adding a lot of subliminal "Can't we all just get along" messages. Some less obvious than others and some in your face, like making the two "opposite cop partners" white and black. (Later in the series, they shove "Save the Dolphin" messages down our throats.) Still reeling in his wife's untimely demise, excellent/top notch/Jack Bauer Detective Riggs (Gibson) is suicidal, a la a "lethal weapon" and is teamed with over-the-hill Murtaugh (Glover) to solve a case involving someone in Murtaugh's war-laced past. They don't get along, have totally different personalities and must learn to work together for their common goal: justice. By means of…fists and gunpowder, for the most part.

A lot of this sounds eerily familiar and predictable. And it is…for someone watching this for the first time today. But, again, this is the movie that set the standards. You'll have to thank this movie for the countless, and I mean countless, like in the hundreds, of rip-offs. Thankfully, this beginning of the "new age" buddy movie was very well done, but not without its flaws.

It is said that the majority (if not all) of the Lethal Weapon films are improv'ed. Sure, they had somewhat of a script, but for the most part, the actors just did there thing. 90% of the time, it worked. When it didn't, it was slow and a little bit too realistic, like you were watching a dysfunctional family or cop partners on TruTV. Thankfully, that was only 10%.

My parents took me to Lethal Weapon 2 in 1989. I was 14 and was allowed in due to being accompanied by adults. I had yet to see the original for years to come. I fell madly in love with part two. Unfortunately, once I was able to see this, I was disappointed as it was not as action-packed or funny as part 2. That said, this is still worth watching. You will see excellent acting by Gibson, the iconic Busey of the 1980s and the origin of the buddy-cop movies to follow. Absolutely recommended.