Film Review: Lethal Weapon 4

Mel Gibson is back as Detective Martin Riggs accompanied by his reluctant partner, Danny Glover as Detective Roger Murtaugh. New blood has been injected into the cast in the form of the ever popular Chris Rock. Chris Rock plays the college educated, psychologist detective, Lee Butters. I’d personally love to see the script for this film because it seemed to me that Chris Rock was perfect in his usual ad lib role. I can’t imagine writer Jonathan Lemkin writing some of his really great lines.

So what is this movie about? This movie, like it’s predecessors, centers around a specific and real subject. In this case, Chinese indentured servitude. While fishing, Murtaugh and Riggs are run over by a ship full of Chinese refugees who are being sold in America as cheap labor as they attempt to pay for their transport to America by working. Murtaugh discovers an entire family and takes them under his wing (illegally) and puts them up in his home. What he doesn’t know is that the family he is trying to save is key to a plot by the Chinese Mafia to defraud another Chinese faction. The action gets going when Riggs and Murtaugh uncover pieces of the puzzle that eventually threaten their own families. We are then introduced to Jet Li as the Kung Fu fighting captain of the slave owners who beats, kicks, flies, and spins his way across the screen in ways most Americans never get to see. He’s simply marvelous and worth the price of admission all by himself.

As China’s second biggest martial arts star right behind Jackie Chan, Jet Li (35) has a relationship with the camera you’ll just love. While he’s clearly a bad guy in the film, he’s the bad guy you’ll love.

Rene Russo returns from Lethal Weapon3 as Riggs’ pregnant live-in significant other. The two of them banter around the issue of marriage in a pleasant sort of way when it’s so clear they love each other and want to commit, but are both afraid. The unorthodox wedding near the end is the first of it’s kind on the screen. It’s comedic and unique.

The best part of this movie was what I call "The Chris Rock Show". Rock actually stole the show in many of the scenes. His humor, was dead on but when he needed to be serious, he was completely believable. His spontaneity with Lethal Weapon veteran Joe Pesci returning as Leo Getz, P.I. was in a word – terrific. When Leo and Butters first meet, Butters is in the rear seat of the police car driven by Riggs. The stereotypical banter between Rock and Pesci is the stuff stand up comedy routines are made off. I’ll even go so far as to suggest that were it not for Chris Rock, Jet Li, and Joe Pesci, this movie would have ranked somewhere between nothing and nothing. The rest of the cast is simply the canvas by which Rock, Pesci, and Li paint themselves into stardom. Riggs and Murtaugh were irrelevant except for the historical perspective they bring to the Lethal Weapon series. Murtaugh spends the entire movie chasing behind Riggs screaming "Riggs, Riggs", like a lost kid looking for his mommy in Macy’s. Riggs spends the entire movie getting beat up by Jet Li and crew and looks pretty bad at it too.

Watching Riggs and Murtaugh was like witnessing Mohammed Ali’s last fight. Gentlemen please, have the dignity to retire from the role while you’re still on top. Speaking of on top, Lethal Weapon 4 is a perfect place for Gibson and Glover to quit save an occasional cameo. It’s my opinion that the ranking order of the series from Best—to—Worst was Lethal Weapon, Lethal Weapon4, Lethal Weapon2 and a distant last place to the worse of the series, Lethal Weapon 3.

I liked this movie. It’s not cinematic masterpiece but it is exactly what it was supposed to be, great fun, great popcorn. There are some wonderful ironies in the movie with respect to Murtaugh’s daughter. You’ll have to wait and see. The main chase scene was top drawer even though completely unbelievable. Go to the potty before you get into the theater because once the action starts, don’t count on too many breaks in the action as an opportunity to duck out to the bathroom.

I’ll make a prediction;  a future Lethal Weapon will Star Chris Rock opposite, say, Ben Affleck with a college level plot of international intrigue that will raise the bar again and again. By the way, both Richard Donner and Jerry Bruckheimer know how to make a good film. Often their films look and feel the same way. Don’t be confused. It’s because both producers know that every good movie starts with a great story backed up by believable performances. So for now, the Lethal Weapon series is in good hands.

See you at the movie