This review contains some minor spoilers for the feature film "Lethal Weapon 4," but I promise not to give away any major revelations concerning the plot.
Nutshell: An unfocused action film, but an amiable revisit to the characters.
----- Lethal Weapon 4 (USA, 1998)
R, 127 minutes
Cast includes: 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), Steve Kahan (Capt. Ed Murphy), Kim Chan (Uncle Benny), Darlene Love (Trish Murtaugh), Traci Wolfe (Rianne)
Distributed by Warner Bros. (USA) Screenplay by Channing Gibson Produced by Richard Donner and Joel Silver Directed by Richard Donner
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan Rating out of 4: **1/2 -----
Ah, Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, how well we've come to know them. In "Lethal Weapon 4" they banter back and forth at a mile a minute, exchanging one-liners so quickly that sometimes we can't keep up. Sometimes we realize it's just as well we can't keep up; the jokes probably wouldn't be all that funny if we didn't know these two and their familiar shtick so well. The "Lethal Weapon" series has managed to survive so long because it allows its lead characters to interact in quirky, amusing ways, usually with rapid-fire dialogue exchange. These two are the definitive team for the buddy cop formula. And Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, who play the entertaining duo, usually look like they're having a genuinely good time up there.
All things considered, "Lethal Weapon 4" is an entertaining but muddled movie. I'll look back on it fondly because it puts these two guys on the screen for one last dance. But the problem with "Lethal 4" is that it's torn between two agendas and never quite finds the happy medium.
On one hand we have a movie that tries tirelessly to bring us up to date with the lives of all the characters we last saw six years ago in "Lethal 3," while simultaneously introducing new characters into the mix. On the other hand, we have the unfolding action movie cop plot, which often seems so unfocused that it looks as if the screenwriters considered it only as an afterthought.
On the character plane, we have Riggs and Murtaugh, who must set some sort of record for continuing to talk at the same time. Meanwhile, they must also set some sort of record for getting mileage out of what should be increasingly stale jokes. As always, the two argue over just when they should go when "going on three." And, of course, their adventures are bound to answer the question of just how much of Murtaugh's personal property can be destroyed in the course of a few days. Here the potentially stale jokes seem more like old friends.
But when you bump into an old friend, that doesn't mean you can simply ditch your job, which is what "Lethal 4" has a tendency to do. There is a plot of sorts here, but it's so choppy and constantly interrupted by more trivial matters that it's hard to get wrapped up in any of it. It involves a mysterious martial arts expert from Hong Kong (Jet Li) who is heading some sort of criminal conspiracy involving illegal Chinese slave labor and some foreign prisoners. The nature of the conspiracy I won't get into, but it takes so long for the movie to get this aspect of the plot off the ground that the Li character simply becomes one of those menacing, half-defined movie villains--and not all that compelling of one, either. That's too bad, because Li has some phenomenal martial arts moves.
Meanwhile, there's Li's connection to the murder of some immigrants and Murtaugh's subsequent attempt to do right by inviting into his home a family of homeless immigrants he finds at the crime scene. The notion is amiable, and in the tradition of humanizing the "Lethal Weapon" characters, but none of this really comes together to a satisfactory resolution.
Director Richard Donner and the screenwriters don't seemed very concerned about the plot. The film is more a comedy than anything else, and plays more like a sitcom than a cop drama. Previous "Lethal" movies managed to sustain some sort of serious dramatic undercurrent, but "Lethal 4" can't seem to get its tongue out of its cheek for more than five seconds at a time.
For example, Chris Rock appears in a major supporting role as a rookie cop who joins Riggs' and Murtaugh's investigation. Much of Rock's dialogue is fast and funny, but the personality isn't really a character so much as an excuse to bring Rock's stand-up routine into the movie. On that level, it's effective, but there's very little story-building at work here, despite some of the obvious potential. Even when it's revealed that Rock's character has been secretly married to Murtaugh's daughter, it's played for sitcom laughs based on contrived misunderstandings.
Joe Pesci's appearance as Leo Getz is merely perfunctory, as if he came back just to recite his obligatory lines--although there's a quirky scene where Rock and Pesci prove that louder can be better. Rene Russo reprises her role as Internal Affairs officer Lorna Cole, but because her character is pregnant she's forced out of most of the action.
The other "Lethal" movies added something to the canvas of the characters that felt like genuine development. This story, unfortunately, is paper-thin and too interested in being lightweight, warm, and fuzzy. Riggs and Murtaugh exist mostly to get on the screen and engage their shtick full speed ahead, and not to face any new personal challenges. Most of what they face in this movie is trivialized merely to move the jokes along.
But even so, there's room for some stuff that's of interest. I particularly enjoyed the notion that we've come full circle, and now Riggs is finally feeling the burden of old age set in. No longer can he beat the bad guy (or even his sparring partner) purely with his manic physical prowess. Riggs is realizing that he himself, in the tradition of the long-lived "Lethal" catchphrase, is "too old for this s---."
Even if Riggs and Murtaugh *are* too old for such nonsense, the series proves it still has some energy left in its action sequences. There's an exhilarating chase sequence--involving Riggs being dragged down the highway on a table attached with a plastic tarp to a mobile home--that is gleefully destructive. I also liked the manic comic goofiness of the opening minutes of the movie, where a madman in armor blow torches an entire city block. A showdown with Li near the end is also nicely staged, although it goes so far over the top that it becomes absurd.
There's also a bizarre interrogation scene that takes place in a dental office, where, through events that I won't even begin to describe, the room fills with nitrous oxide, causing everyone in the room to laugh uncontrollably. The scene isn't one of the movie's high points, but you've got to give the filmmakers credit for going all out.
"Lethal Weapon 4" is the least of the series, but it serves its purpose: It's goofy, mindless summer entertainment. It could've been more than that, but for what it does it gets the job done.
It's obvious this film exists more to please fans of the "Lethal" series--and to give its cast and crew their final curtain call--than it does to tell a story. The ending has a ring of finality to it, which is hammered home with a surprising overabundance of narcissism. Indeed, the excessively cheesy final minutes of "Lethal Weapon 4" feel almost like the final episode of a high-rated sitcom series. But I did find the ending strangely infectious, even poignant.
I will miss Riggs and Murtaugh. And all of their friends and family as well.
----- Copyright (c) 1998 by Jamahl Epsicokhan, all rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this article is prohibited.
Jammer's Movie Reviews - http://www.epsico.com/movies/ Jamahl Epsicokhan - jammer@epsico.com
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