Lethal Weapon

Perhaps 80's action films were all self-aware? Beginning as a rather reflective police procedural, the action and logic soon jump into ludicrous speed in a manner that seems purposeful and reflexive: a comment on the American Banal, allowing regular joes an outlet to blow shit up. The use of sound - background sounds always commenting on the characters - seems to point this way. It's practically magical realism for working stiffs.

The originator. This one laid down the blue-print for every Bruckheimer buddy flick to come. And as insulting as that sounds, somehow, this one works. Sure it meanders a little too much out the gate. Sure by now most of its characters, situations and sequences have become cliches. Sure there isn't much by way of plot. Sure Gibson's rocking the Mellet. It doesn't matter. It's just a fun and very likable flick. Released four months before I was born, it hasn't aged as gracefully as I have.

The 1980s sensibility enormously dates this picture; largely with the post-Vietnam backstories, inner city fear of drugs, and conversations on sensitive men. Yet the buddy cop concept revolutionized police movies. My one complaint is that the suicidal tendencies of the Riggs character are sometimes a little too cartoony--especially when played after some nice quiet dramatic moments. Still, the action (mainly the torture scene) is geared towards teenage boys, and the movie holds up at that level.

Mel Gibson is great as a grunting, top-notch-abs, Vietnam Vet suicidal crazy person with 80s hair. Danny Glover's mustache does a satisfactory job, and Shane Black's writing makes no sense. LETHAL WEAPON is littered with very random explosions, gunfights, fisticuffs, and a drug smuggling plot that hardly matters. It's also the most random Christmas movie I've ever seen, as it's of no consequence to the plot, and was apparently released on March 6, 1987. lol???

Totally unrealistic, most veterans are homeless not gainfully employed as cops and heroin dealers.