Lethal Weapon 2

Sergeant Robert Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and Sergeant Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) are back, this time tearing up the streets in a car chase. They manage to run the car off the road, but the driver gets away. They do find, however, a stash of gold coins in the trunk of the car. After that little stunt their captain gives them a simple task: babysitting a man in the witness protection program until the Feds pick him up. Instead they get Leo Getz (Joe Pesci) to help them solve the case. Turns out that Getz is the launderer for the South African crime syndicate that is based in L.A. It turns out (conveniently) that those were the same people that Riggs and Murtaugh  chased down at the beginning of the movie.

Getz brings them to a fancy house on stilts. They bust everyone in the house, but the only problem is they are all working for the South African Embassy and have diplomatic immunity. The main bad guy is Arjen Rudd (Joss Ackland) and he and Riggs don't seem to like each other. Riggs follows him around for awhile, just bothering him, letting Rudd know he's watching.  And after Murtagh's family is threatened they really mean business.  They find out that the syndicate is intending to smuggle all their money out in one big shipment only they have no idea where. All they have are the worlds 'Alba Varden' that Riggs stole off a paper in Rudd's office.

During the investigation Riggs falls for Rudd's secretary Rika van den Hass (Patsy Kensit) and while they are together for the night, Murtaugh is attacked, Getz is captured and most of the other cops on the case are killed.  Rita is killed and Riggs almost drowns but gets away.  Murtaugh and Riggs then decide that this is not the time to be cops and it's time to take action into their own hands, so to speak. They destroy the house on stilts (after saving Getz) and then head over to the docks because 'Alba Varden' is actually the name of a ship. They manage to stop the bad guys from getting away with all the money by shooting all of them, even Rudd.  Man, they are going to get into so much trouble after this one.

I actually enjoyed this movie more than the first Lethal Weapon movie. Glover and Gibson are still fabulous together and with the addition of Pesci, it is just golden. I found this one was funnier than the first one. There were serious moments that dealt with murder and the Apartheid in South Africa, but over all it just made you laugh.

I have no complaints about the plot for this one. It wasn't spectacular but at least it made sense and flowed nicely from beginning to end.

I do have two small complaints and that is all.  I wish that someone had taught Ackland what a Dutch accent sounded like, because most of the movie he just sounded British, especially the first scene he was in. There he wasn't even trying. [Coral: Actually, if the character is supposed to be from South Africa, then they should have taught him that accent, because it's not all that similar sounding to Dutch. I actually find it sounds closer to Australian.] My second complaint is that I feel that Kensit was a little out of her league in this movie. She was out acted by all the other excellent actors around her that she actually looked bad. I don't think she did a bad job, but she was not to par with the rest of them.

The rest of it was awesome. It was funny and filled with action, what more can a girl ask for?

Grade: 7.5/10