Lethal Weapon 4
Riggs and Murtaugh were finally too old for this shit in “Lethal Weapon 4.” There’s still quite a bit to enjoy in the film, but it peters out after a more-than-solid first three films in the franchise. I will say that what it gets right, I think it really gets right. Riggs has done a complete 180 from the character we were introduced to in the 1987 original, and he and Murtaugh have built a nice family of characters around them that feels, truly, like a family, more than earning the photo album finale director Richard Donner creates for them during the end credits.
The film begins with an obligatory action sequence where Riggs and Murtaugh (Mel Gibson and Danny Glover) wreck part of Los Angeles, this time involving a perpetrator with a flame thrower. Unlike the similar set pieces that started out the previous two films in the series, the only baring this one has on the larger plot on Channing Gibson’s screenplay is that it reveals that Lorna (Rene Russo) is pregnant with Riggs’s baby, and Murtaugh’s daughter, Rianne (Traci Wolfe), is pregnant also, although we don’t learn who the father is until a bit later. The next scene has the two detectives on Roger’s boat with Leo Getz (Joe Pesci) fishing when they inadvertently stumble on to a human trafficking plot involving Chinese refugees being brought in by Uncle Benny (Kim Chan) for members of the Hong Kong triad (led by Jet Li). Helping them on the case is Detective Lee Butters (Chris Rock), who may or may not be the father of Rianne’s baby, which Roger might not be too happy about if he finds out.
If you really think about it, the “Lethal Weapon” series sort of alternated between two types of cases for Riggs and Murtaugh- police and military corruption in the first and third films, and more worldly social issues in the second and fourth films. I’ve watched these films many times over the years, and it’s surprising that I never noticed that before. Nobody ever accused the “Lethal Weapon” franchise of being original every time out, though, and that’s not why their 1998 swan song on the big screen (before the eventual TV reboot that happened a few years ago) pales in comparison to what came before it. The story this time is really thin, and doesn’t have the heft of becoming something personal for the pair like “Lethal Weapon 2” did, even when it puts their loved ones in danger, and the obvious comparisons between human trafficking and slavery come up early in the film. It doesn’t help that this film was basically written as it was made, and it shows, and the character interactions hinge on tired routines (Riggs and Murtaugh messing with Leo) and cliches (Lorna as the always hungry mother-to-be, and her and Riggs not being married yet), although these actors still maintain a terrific rapport with one another. The most meaningful interactions in the movie are between Roger and Hong (Eddy Ko), the father of one of the trafficked families, and a surprisingly touching late scene between Riggs and Leo that helps bring things full circle for Riggs emotionally. Jeffrey Boam’s voice is missing greatly from this film. So is Shane Black’s, but he had other ideas for the series that didn’t jive with what Donner had in mind.
When this came out, Hong Kong action had made its way into Hollywood in a big way, and I’m sure the idea of having Riggs and Murtaugh go up against someone like Jet Li was a big reason for why the story became about what it’s about. (They had also approached Jackie Chan, but he didn’t want to play the villain; plus, he would really hit it big in ’98 with his own mismatched buddy cop movie in “Rush Hour.”) Li is honestly a great choice for the role here; while I think Chan could have offered something interesting comedically, Li is far more intimidating, and his quick, brutal movements present a more formidable challenge for Riggs and Murtaugh to go up against. The film delivers on the action front in two sequences especially- a car chase around the middle of the film, as well as a final mano a mano a mano fight where both cops go up against Li, and we feel more genuine danger for the two than we have since the end of “Lethal Weapon 2.” Donner knows his way around action, and he and cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak give the scenes an edge and energy visually we haven’t seen in a couple of films. Unfortunately, there’s not much else to really hang their hat on, in this film.
After four films, it was plenty time to retire Gibson and Glover from these roles, and not necessarily because of age, or any of the things that have come out about Gibson the past 20-plus years. Over the course of the films, the actors grew these characters beyond cliches and turned them into genuine human beings we came to care about and enjoy our time with, and by the end here, their story had come full circle. I will continue to enjoy these films because of how they and the actors around them (Rene Russo, Darlene Love and Trish, Steve Kahan as the Chief, Pesci, Wolfe and Rock) work together, and how Donner builds action scenes. There’s a reason “Lethal Weapon 4” is not necessarily in the rotation as much as the other films, though; the formula was bumping up to its expiration date by the time it came out.
