National Lampoon's: Loaded Weapon 1

I am glad my fellow reviewers (some of them) also found this movie enjoyable. It was silly at times but never insulting and the large cast helps greatly. Of particular interest is cameos by Erik Estrada, Dr. Joyce Brothers and Bill Nunn. Even Kathy Ireland manages to be funny! Its not the Marx Brothers or "Some Like it Hot", but for what it is, I liked it a lot.

Maybe it was the mood I was in but the most recent time I watched this movie I laughed my sss off.

Yes, it's nominally a spoof of other well-known movies from that era but there are enough solid jokes in here to keep you laughing in the same way that Airplane! And Naked Gun movies just keep firing gags at you. In fact, 28 years after its release I think the ''original" material holds up better than the ''spoof" material. Heck, the writer who came up with that 5-second throwaway gag with Claire The Dog squeezing lighter fluid on the charcoal grill should get lifetime ringside seats to The Westminster Dog Show.

My personal favorite part was when William Shatner - who is basically the godfather of self-satire - pays a visit to underling Dennis Leary's house and murders him for stealing Bill Hicks' act. I mean, the microfilm. As an aside, The Job was Leary at his bitter, funny peak. Rescue Me was a chick show.

Loaded Weapon loses some momentum when Kathy Ireland shows up. But it's still well worth your 90 minutes. It takes more than one viewing to catch all the jokes, and that makes it a lot of fun. I bet there are plenty of people out there who were in high school in 1993 who saw this every weekend at the drive-in that summer.

Now this is more like it for a NATIONAL LAMPOON film: LOADED WEAPON 1 is a great and affectionate spoof of the movies that takes the LETHAL WEAPON franchise as its main inspiration. It has plenty in common with Leslie Nielsen's NAKED GUN films, with a scattershot approach providing plenty of laughs, a lot of them obvious, a lot of them surreal, many of them relying on cameo appearances for effect.

Emilio Estevez plays a maverick cop, clearly modelled on Mel Gibson's Riggs, while Samuel L. Jackson gives a stand-out performance as a retiring cop modelled on Danny Glover's Murtaugh. They're involved in a storyline involving over-the-top cocaine smugglers Tim Curry and William Shatner, and there are hundreds of gags packed into a slender running time. If you're a fan of HOT SHOTS et al then this is the film for you.

And I'm still getting over those endless cameos. Bruce Willis is the best and most unexpected one, but watch out for the likes of Corey Feldman, Whoopi Goldberg, Charlie Sheen, Erik Estrada, Paul Gleason, and many, many others making unexpected and welcome appearances. This is probably the best film for cameos that I can think of.

Back in the 80's and 90's spoofs were good. Airplane, the Naked Guns, the various Lampoons were all cool. Now the spoofs are all vulgar and tasteless.

Loaded Weapon 1's primary material is Lethal Weapon. The two stars: Colt (Estevez) and Luger (Jackson) are supposed to be Riggs and Murtaugh. But like most spoofs they interwove other cop classics from the time: Basic Instinct and Silence of the Lambs.

The jokes are silly, some of them are run ons but that's what you expect. If we could only return to the era of good satires.

This isn't Airplane!, The Man With Two Brains, , or any number of classic slapsticks, but it is up there, and it is funny. While it has its slow times, it still manages to make you laugh. Great one liners, and wonderful acting make it a solid and worthy buy. Everytime you watch it, you will find yet another smart-ass, sarcastic reply, an offbeat joke or an obscure parody. Loaded Weapon 1 hits and for 90% of the time doesn't miss. It honestly doesn't get enough credit.