Lethal Weapon

Sergeant Robert Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is called in to investigate a jumper. Her name was Amanda Hunsaker (Jackie Swanson), the daughter of Mike Hunsaker (Tom Atkins), an old army buddy of Murtaugh's who had been trying to get in contact with him for the past few days. Murtagh discovers that it was a murder not a suicide. He is then paired up with Sergeant Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson), a suicidal cop from narcotics.

Both are not happy about being put together but deal with it by shouting at each other a lot.  However after Riggs saves Murtaugh's life they start warming up to each other and actually start to solve the seemingly simple case.  As they go to talk to a witness they are almost caught in a explosion.  The bomb fragment they find is from special forces. Murtaugh then puts it together that Amanda was killed because her father was about to go to the cops about the drug operation he is involved in. Before Mike Hunsaker can tell them more, he is killed.

Before they can do anything they are attacked and Murtaugh's eldest daughter Rianne (Traci Wolfe) is kidnapped. Their attempted rescue is a failure and they are also captured. Riggs gets free, however (because Murtaugh is too old for this anyway) and gets them all freed and most of the bad guys are killed. All but one, the main henchmen Mr. Joshua (Gary Busey), who, instead of escaping and plotting his revenge for a future movie, goes to Murtaugh's house where they find him. However, instead of arresting him Riggs decides to have a manly, shirtless fight scene with him where Joshua is killed, eventually.  With that bonding experience over, the two are good friends now and they even share a lovely Christmas dinner together.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was a little tacky and the plot was not that interesting. However the acting was right on point; well the main actors anyway, the secondary and tertiary are hit and miss. Glover and Gibson are fabulous together. If it had been two other actors I don't think it would have been pulled off with such excellence.

The main complaint I have with this film is the ending.  The whole thing with Mr. Joshua made absolutely no sense to me what so ever. And I'm sure the only reason the final fight scene was put in was because they felt that Gibson needed to be manlier (wet and shirtless). In my opinion it made no sense and ruined a passably entertaining movie.

Grade: 6/10